STACK 


CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 


^CRUISING    AMONG    THE 
•CARIBBEESj 

SUMMER  DAYS  IN  WINTER  MONTHS 


BY 


CHARLES  AUGUSTUS  $TODDARD 

AUTHOR  OF  "ACROSS  RUSSIA,"  "SPANISH  CITIES,"  "BEYOND  THE  ROCKIES' 
EDITOR  OF  "  THE  NEW  YORK  OBSERVER  " 


ILLUSTRATED 


£NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S   SONS 


COPYRIGHT,  1895,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


J.  8.  Cuihing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Man.  U.S.A. 


TO 

IRENE   STODDARD  HOFFMAN 

WHO   AS   DAUGHTER,   WIFE,   AND    MOTHER 
ADORNS   THREE   HONORED   NAMES 

THIS   RECORD   OF   TRAVEL 

IS  AFFECTIONATELY   INSCRIBED 

BY   THE   AUTHOR 


CONTENTS 


I.    LITERATURE  OF  THE  ISLANDS 

PAGE 

Seeking  for  Knowledge  in  Libraries  —  Pere  Labat  and  his 
Chronicles  —  Hunt  Collection  of  Books  on  the  West  Indies 
—  Ober's  Works  —  Kingsley's  "  At  Last "  1 


II.     DISCOVERY  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  CARIBBEES 

Voyages  of  Columbus  —  Where  and  what  the  Caribbees  are  — 
Volcanic  and  Coral  Origin  —  The  People  and  their  Destiny 


III.    A  SEA  CHANGE 

New  York  in  a  Snowstorm  —  A  Ship  with  a  History  and  an 
Adventurous  Captain  —  Bare  Company  —  Outsailing  a 
Blizzard  —  From  Winter  to  Summer  —  Ship  Island 14 

IV.    THE  VIRGIN  GROUP 

The  Danish  Island  of  St.  Thomas  —  How  the  United  States 
lost  it  —  War  Vessels  of  Many  Nations  —  Black  Divers  and 
Sharks  —  Human  Beasts  of  Burden 23 

V.    ST.  THOMAS  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 

Landing  under  Difficulties  —  Strange  Fruits  and  Shells  — 
Tobacco,  Cigars,  and  Spirits  —  Dominant  Races  —  Relig- 
ion, Work,  and  Wages  in  St.  Thomas  . . ., 32 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

VI.     SANTA  CRUZ 

PAGE 

Coldest  Day  for  Years  —  Drinking  Fresh  Cocoanuts  —  Sugar 
Cane  Plantations  —  How  Sugar  is  made  by  a  New  Eng- 
lander  —  Oil  board  the  Cruiser  New  York 41 

VII.    FROM  SABA  TO  ST.  KITT'S 

Bottom  on  Top  —  Ship  building  on  a  Mountain  —  A  Pennsyl- 
vania School  Ship  —  Mount  Misery  and  Monkey  Hill  — 
Wonderful  Fishes  —  Banyans  and  Palmistes 51 

VIII.    LIFE  ON  ST.  KITT'S 

The  Aborigines,  the  Settlers  and  their  Wars  —  Churches  of 
St.  Kitt's  —  A  Story  of  Deaf  Mutes  —  Photographs,  Coins, 
and  Curios  —  A  Drive  around  the  Island  and  a  Negro 
Wedding 60 

IX.    A  REAL  WEST  INDIAN  ISLAND 

Beauties  of  Sea  and  Shore  —  Drowsy  Old  Town  —  In  Days  of 
Auld  Lang  Syne  —  A  Fountain  of  Youth  —  Birthplace  of 
Hamilton  and  Marriage  Place  of  Nelson 68 

X.     ANTIGUA  AND  ITS  ANNALS 

Montserrat  and  its  Lime  Juice  Factory  —  Praying  for  Rain  — 
A  Tale  of  Abduction,  Jealousy,  and  Death  —  Indian 
Warner  —  Turtle  Soup  here  and  in  London 76 

XI.    WITCHCRAFT  AND  SUPERSTITION 

Ignorance  and  Credulity  of  the  Negroes  —  Obeah,  what  it  is 
and  how  practised  —  Similar  Beliefs  in  Other  Nations  — 
Anansi,  Jurnbee  and  Duppy  Stories  —  Spiritualism  and 
Hypnotism 86 


CONTENTS  IX 

XII.     GUADELOUPE 

PAGB 

Up  Salt  Kiver  —  Hurricane  Work  —  A  Great  Steaming  Vol- 
cano —  Coffee  Plantations  and  Culture  —  Brilliant  Market 
Scene  —  Extracts  from  Pere  Labat 96 

XIII.     SABBATH  DAY  ISLAND 

Eainbows  among  the  Groo-groo  Palms  —  Monsieur  Cockroach 
and  his  Man  Isaac  —  A  Bare  Mountain  Ride  —  Tropical 
Airs,  Sights,  and  Sounds  —  A  New  Paradise  with  Some 
Snakes  —  History  of  Dominica 108 

XIV.     CARIES  OF  DOMINICA  AND  ST.  VINCENT 

Columbus  and  the  Caribs  —  A  Forgotten  Language  —  The 
Remnant  of  a  People  — Jenny  the  Monkey  and  her  Reflec- 
tions    119 

XV.     ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE 

France  in  the  Tropics  —  Fountains  and  Flowing  Waters  — 
Mardi  Gras  and  Wild  Revelries  —  The  "  Swizzle  "  and  its 
Uses  —  Snake  Stories  —  Empress  Josephine,  her  Early  Life 
here  and  her  Statue  —  Madame  de  Maintenon 126 

XVI.     BATTLES  AMONG  THE  ISLANDS 

Buccaneers  of  the  Spanish  Main  —  Count  de  Grasse  and 
Admiral  Rodney  —  A  Decisive  Naval  Battle — The  Sloop  of 
War  Diamond  Sock 145 

XVII.     ST.  LUCIA 

The  Best  Lauding  Place  in  the  Caribbees  —  Town  of  Castries 
—  The  Lofty  and  Weird  Pitons  —  Tales  and  Traditions  . . .  151 

XVIII.     ST.  VINCENT  AND  THE  GRENADINES 

A  Superb  Amphitheatre  —  Outburst  of  a  Volcano  —  Making 
Arrowroot  —  Bargaining  for  a  Baby  — A  Little  Archipelago  159 


X  CONTENTS 

XIX.     BARBADOS 

PAGB 

A  Scene  of  Busy  Life  —  Swarms  of  People  —  Bridgetown  and 
the  Ice  House  —  Crisis  in  the  Sugar  Trade  —  Beneficent 
Effects  of  British  Rule 167 

XX.    TRINIDAD 

The  Dragon's  Mouth  and  the  Gulf  of  Paria  —  Discovery  by 
Columbus  —  Three  Fearful  Fires  —  Railways,  Steamships, 
and  Active  Commerce  —  Famous  Gardens 176 

XXI.    HINDUS  AT  TRINIDAD 

Contrast  of  Races  —  Coolie  Apprenticeship,  Labor,-and  Life — 
A  Collection  of  Living  Curiosities  —  Hindu  Priest,  Acca- 
wai  Indians,  and  Coolie  Belle 184 

XXII.     LA  BREA  AND  THE  PITCH  LAKE 

Where  the  Pitch  conies  from  —  Blackness  of  Darkness  — 
Turning  Pitch  into  Gold  —  Homeward  Bound  —  An  Eevoir  192 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


A   ROAD   IN   THE    CARIBBEES,    TRINIDAD        .       .       .        Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

ST.  THOMAS 32 

SUGAR  CANE  PLANTATION  . 46 

BASSE  TERRE,  ST.  KITT'S CO 

PALM  GROVE,  ISLAND  OF  NEVIS 68 

ST.  JOHN'S,  ANTIGUA 76 

A  WEST  INDIAN  TYPE 86 

MILK  SELLER,  GUADELOUPE 102 

INDIGO  MAKING,  DOMINICA 112 

ST.  PIERRE,  MARTINIQUE 128 

STATUE  OF  JOSEPHINE,  MARTINIQUE 138 

THE  PITONS,  ST.  LUCIA 156 

ST.  GEORGE'S,  ISLAND  OF  GRENADA 160 

NELSON  SQUARE,  BARBADOS 168 

GOVERNOR'S  HOUSE,  TRINIDAD 176 

BARBAJEE-HINDU  COOLIE  PRIEST 188 


CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

I 

LITERATURE   OF  THE  ISLANDS 

SEEKING    FOB    KNOWLEDGE    1ST    LIBRARIES PERE     LABAT 

AND  HIS  CHRONICLES HUNT  COLLECTION  OF  BOOKS  ON 

THE   WEST    INDIES  —  OBER's    WORKS  —  KINGSLEY5S    "AT 
LAST  " 

ONE  who  is  bound  for  a  region  which  he  has  never 
visited  before  usually  desires  some  specific  knowl- 
edge of  it  in  advance,  though  I  have  met  occasional 
travellers  who  declared  that  one  great  enjoyment  of 
travel  was  to  "go  it  blind,"  meaning  thereby  that 
the  unexpected  gave  pungency  and  flavor  to  their 
experiences.  It  is  better  to  go  intelligently  pre- 
pared, however;  for  one  may  be  reasonably  sure  of 
adventures  enough  in  any  long  journey,  especially 
if  it  be  somewhat  out  of  the  beaten  track. 

The  four-hundredth  year  of  Columbus  and  the 
Columbian  Exhibition  gave  a  considerable  stimulus 
to  literature  relating  to  the  West  India  Islands,  but 
after  all  that  has  been  written  during  the  past  three 
years  about  the  great  discoverer,  the  books  upon  the 


2  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

islands  which  he  discovered  have  not  been  largely 
multiplied.  In  New  York  one  naturally  goes  to  the 
Geographical  Society  and  to  the  reference  libraries 
for  information,  but  the  chief  information  obtainable 
at  the  former,  aside  from  excellent  maps,  was  in  vol- 
umes published  from  one  to  two  hundred  years  ago. 
Among  these  the  work  of  Edwards  is  a  standard,  and 
the  chronicles  of  Pere  Labat  has  been  a  treasure- 
house  full  of  interesting  accounts  of  scenery,  animals, 
and  people  from  which  subsequent  writers  have  not 
hesitated  to  enrich  their  pages.  An  interesting  char- 
acter was  this  Labat.  He  spent  two  years  at  Marti- 
nique, then  in  1696  passed  to  Guadeloupe  where  he 
established  a  station  of  the  Dominican  Order,  with 
which  he  was  connected,  and  distinguished  himself 
as  an  agriculturist  and  an  engineer.  Returning  to 
Martinique,  he  became  procureur-gSnSral  of  the  mis- 
sion, and  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  successive 
governors  for  his  diplomatic  and  scientific  services. 
He  explored  the  archipelago  of  the  Antilles,  founded 
in  the  year  1703  the  city  of  Basse-Terre,  and  in  the 
same  year  made  himself  felt  in  the  conflict  with 
England  for  possession  of  the  island. 

He  tried  hard  to  convert  the  Caribs.  They  were 
ready  to  sell  their  secrets  of  healing  and  of  poison, 
and  to  accept  Christianity  and  be  baptized  for  French 
brandy  or  money  that  would  buy  it,  but  there  was 


LITERATURE   OF   THE   ISLANDS  3 

no  connection  in  their  minds  between  religion  and 
morality.  He  records  his  acquaintance  with  the  Carib 
queen  of  Dominica,  a  woman  of  a  strange  history 
among  the  French  and  English,  more  than  a  hundred 
years  old  and  with  a  large  number  of  descendants. 
She  was  naked  and  bent  double,  but  the  French 
Father  made  her  talk,  and  they  exchanged  gifts. 

A  visit  to  the  Mercantile  Library  at  Clinton  Hall, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  wide-awake  and  useful 
institutions  in  the  city,  revealed  the  fullest  cata- 
logue of  books  upon  the  West  Indies.  There  were 
to  be  found  here  Charles  H.  Eden's  "  West  Indies," 
and  Bates's  "  Central  America,"  and  the  "  Cruise 
of  the  Falcon,"  by  Knight,  and  Charles  Kingsley's 
"  At  Last "  —  all  London  books  —  and  McQuade's 
"Cruise  of  the  Montauk,"  a  rollicking  tale  of  a 
yachting  trip,  published  in  New  York  ten  years 
ago,  and  two  capital  books  by  F.  A.  Ober.  The 
last  of  these  is  called  "In  the  Wake  of  Colum- 
bus," and  is  a  record  of  the  author's  experiences  in 
visiting  the  West  Indies  to  solicit  the  co-operation 
of  the  various  governments  of  the  islands  in  the 
World's  Fair  at  Chicago.  A  previous  visit  to  the 
West  Indies  a  dozen  years  before  had  qualified  Mr. 
Ober  for  such  an  embassy,  in  which  he  was  measu- 
rably successful,  as  all  visitors  to  the  departments  at 
the  Fair  relating  specially  to  Columbus  will  remem- 


4  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

her.  Besides  these  books,  there  is  Lafcadio  Hearn's 
delightful  "  Two  Years  in  the  French  West  Indies," 
pervaded  throughout  with  the  dreamy  and  delicious 
atmosphere  of  the  islands,  and  Paton's  "Down  the 
Islands,"  a  veritable  guide-book  in  a  most  agreeable 
disguise.  Further  researches  produced  a  list  of  the 
names  of  English  and  French  works,  and  reference 
to  a  variety  of  magazine  articles  through  fifty  years ; 
but  the  former  were  not  to  be  had  or  consulted  here, 
and  the  latter  were  chiefly  of  that  impressionist  style 
of  literature  which  every  child  of  the  pen  can  create 
for  himself  and  his  transient  readers ;  pleasant  read- 
ing which  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised,  but  not 
valuable  to  the  knowledge  seeker. 

After  my  return  from  voyaging  among  the  Car- 
ibbees,  I  found  at  the  Public  Library  in  Boston  the 
Hunt  collection  of  books,  maps,  and  charts  upon  the 
West  Indies.  This  is  one  of  the  most  complete  col- 
lections in  existence ;  of  great  service  to  the  traveller, 
and  of  especial  use  to  the  student  of  African  slavery 
and  emancipation. 

Mr.  Ober's  book  is  perhaps  the  most  useful  and 
instructive  book  for  the  tourist  who  wishes  to  camp 
and  hunt  in  the  various  islands.  He  has  visited  and 
described  more  of  the  Caribbees  than  any  modern 
writer.  He  is  an  enthusiastic  naturalist,  and  was 
specially  devoted  to  birds  and  woods,  two  subjects 


LITERATURE   OF   THE  ISLANDS  5 

which  have  more  wonderful  illustration  in  a  small 
space  in  the  Caribbean  Islands  than  elsewhere  in  the 
world.  His  visits  to  the  West  Indies  for  the  pur- 
poses of  natural  history  naturally  led  him  to  take  an 
interest  in  the  great  navigator,  whose  trail  he  was 
continually  crossing,  and  as  special  commissioner  to 
the  West  Indies,  he  made  an  exhaustive  examination 
of  everything  in  these  islands  which  had  reference  to 
Columbus.  Mr.  Ober  has  followed  Columbus  through 
all  his  voyages,  writing,  as  he  says,  "  every  descrip- 
tion from  personal  observation,  and  using  the  histori- 
cal events  merely  as  a  golden  thread  upon  which  to 
string  the  beads  of  this  Columbian  rosary."  His 
book  is  lavishly  illustrated  and  decorated,  and  con- 
tains more  than  five  hundred  pages,  of  which  less 
than  one-fifth  are  given  to  the  Lesser  Antilles. 

Charles  Kingsley's  book,  "  At  Last,"  is  one  which 
will  repay  reading,  even  though  the  reader  never 
intends  to  follow  in  his  track ;  for  it  is  careful  and 
keen  in  its  observation  of  men  and  things,  abounds 
in  truthful  descriptions  and  vivacious  anecdotes,  and 
is  the  work  of  a  thorough  and  conscientious  scholar, 
whose  comparative  estimates  are  impressive  and  val- 
uable. It  is  fairly  illustrated,  but  art  has  not  yet 
been  summoned  to  the  illustration  of  this  part  of  the 
world,  although  it  has  more  wonders  of  beautiful 
and  strange  scenery  than  almost  any  region  of  equal 


6  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

extent.  Of  geographical  illustration  there  is  no 
lack,  and  the  reason  for  this  is  evident.  Sailors  must 
have  complete  and  trustworthy  charts  by  which  to 
guide  their  ships  in  this  age  of  the  world.  Vessels 
no  longer  creep  around  the  coasts,  and  by  reason  of 
their  light  draught,  find  their  way  into  little  bays 
and  harbors  which  had  never  been  dreamed  of.  Now 
they  strike  boldly  across  wide  and  dangerous  seas, 
and  run  equally  through  night  and  darkness  and  at 
noonday.  Lighthouses  and  charts  and  steam  and 
telegraphs  and  meteorological  observations  and  re- 
ports have  become  essential  to  commerce,  while  art 
and  pictorial  illustration  have  been  only  the  hand- 
maids of  pleasure  and  luxury.  But  a  new  day  is 
dawning,  the  system  of  picture  teaching  is  rapidly 
being  developed,  the  magazines  elegantly,  and  the 
newspapers  rudely  illustrate  their  articles,  and  ere- 
long there  will  be  no  corner  of  the  earth  which  can 
be  read  about  that  will  remain  unknown  to  human 
vision.  Then  perhaps  it  will  be  needless  for  the 
traveller  to  describe  anything  except  his  adventures, 
perhaps  hardly  these.  I  am  thankful  that  the  full 
development  of  the  pictorial  age  has  not  arrived;  for 
its  full  advent  would  probably  prevent  me  from  trav- 
elling at  all,  and  would  also  debar  my  friends  from 
taking  with  me  what  I  trust  will  prove  an  entertain- 
ing tour  among  the  Windward  Islands. 


II 


DISCOVERY  AND   CHARACTERISTICS   OF 
THE   CARIBBEES 

VOYAGES    OF    COLUMBUS WHERE   AND  WHAT  THE   CARIB- 

BEKS       ARE VOLCANIC       AND      CORAL      ORIGIN THE 

PEOPLE    AND     THEIR    DESTINY 

IT  was  on  the  25th  of  September,  1493,  that  Co- 
lumbus set  sail  from  Cadiz  on  his  second  voyage  to  the 
New  World.  It  was  a  different  scene  and  company 
from  that  which  marked  his  first  departure.  The 
mystery  of  the  western  ocean  had  been  revealed,  the 
spell  of  secrecy  which  had  hung  over  it  was  broken, 
and  the  great  navigator  was  going  forth  to  gather  the 
harvest  which  he  had  sown  in  tears  and  weariness. 
Could  he  have  looked  to  the  end  of  his  career,  per- 
haps on  that  September  morning  he  would  have  been 
content  with  what  he  had  achieved,  and  allowed 
others  to  toil  and  suffer  and  die  for  the  fame  and 
gold  which  allured  him  to  his  ruin.  But  that  was 
yet  far  off,  and  the  ships  sailed  away  to  the  Canary 
Islands,  where  they  were  to  rendezvous,  and  whence 
they  were  to  make  the  start  for  Hispaniola,  now 
called  Hayti. 

7 


8  CRUISING  AMONG   THE   CARIBBEES 

On  this  voyage  Columbus  had  gone  much  farther 
south  than  upon  his  first  one.  Then,  after  thirty- 
three  days  of  sailing,  he  discovered  the  Bahamas,  and 
landed  either  on  the  island  of  San  Salvador,  or  on 
Watling  Island,  not  far  distant.  Now,  the  fleet  had 
not  been  in  the  open  sea  more  than  twenty  days 
before  land  was  seen.  It  proved  to  be  an  island,  and 
Columbus  named  it  Dominica  in  honor  of  the  day, 
Sunday,  upon  which  it  was  discovered.  He  could 
find  no  good  harbor  in  Dominica,  and,  therefore, 
went  ashore  at  another  smaller  island,  which  he 
called  Marigalante,  after  his  ship.  He  had  found 
the  Caribbean  Islands,  which  are  said  to  be  the  most 
beautiful  group  of  islands  in  the  world,  covered  with 
perpetual  verdure  and  teeming  with  the  rarest  prod- 
ucts of  tropical  regions,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  he  thought  he  had  attained  to  an  earthly  par- 
adise. But  these  lovely  spots  were  inhabited  by  a 
fierce  race  of  Indians.  The  Caribs  were  said  to  be 
cannibals.  At  all  events  they  successfully  resisted 
the  white  invaders.  Spaniards,  and  French,  and 
Dutch,  and  English,  in  turn,  sought  to  conquer  them. 
They  were  crowded  a  little  way  back  into  the  forests 
only  to  issue  forth  again  and  drive  their  enemies 
into  the  sea.  Power  and  civilization  could  not 
subdue,  they  could  only  decimate  and  destroy  them. 
So  it  has  come  to  pass,  that  now,  after. centuries  of 


DISCOVERY   AND   CHARACTERISTICS  9 

conflict,  the  European  has  worn  out  the  West  Indian 
Caribs.  There  are  a  few  hundred  of  the  natives 
left  on  Dominica.  They  are  crowded  into  a  small 
reservation  and  live  upon  the  charity  of  a  govern- 
ment which  once  tried  in  vain  to  conquer  their 
ancestors. 

The  West  Indies  make  a  great  group  of  islands, 
which,  doubtless,  once  formed  a  portion  of  the  con- 
tinent of  America.  One  who  looks  at  their  position 
on  a  globe,  or  studies  their  physical  geography  and 
natural  history,  will  come  inevitably  to  this,  con- 
clusion. They  lie  mostly  in  the  tropics,  between 
the  fifty-ninth  and  eighty-fifth  parallels  of  west 
longitude,  and  contain  a  total  area  of  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles.  The 
greater  portion  of  this  territory  is  embraced  in  four 
islands  —  Cuba,  Santa  Domingo,  Jamaica,  and  Porto 
Rico,  but  there  are  more  than  a  thousand  other 
islands.  Geographers  have  separated  this  great  group 
into  four,  dividing  them  according  to  their  position, 
their  size,  and  their  relations  to  each  other.  Thus 
the  six  hundred  little  flat  coral  islands,  which  form 
the  northernmost  group,  are  called  Bahamas;  the 
four  large  ones  named  above,  with  some  other  small 
islands  adjacent,  are  called  the  Greater  Antilles ; 
while  the  curving  chain  of  islands  which  extends 
from  Porto  Rico,  southwesterly  to  the  delta  of  the 


10  CRUISING   AMONG   THE   CARIBBEES 

Orinoco,  is  called  the  Lesser  Antilles.  These  are 
also  known  as  Caribbean,  since  they  lie  chiefly  in 
the  sea  of  that  name.  Sometimes  they  are  divided 
into  Windward  Islands  —  by  contrast  with  the  fourth 
group  —  and  Leeward  Islands,  the  former  class  end- 
ing at  Martinique,  and  the  latter  beginning  there 
and  extending  to  the  coast  of  Venezuela. 

The  Antilles  are  volcanic ;  earthquakes  have 
shaken  the  whole  archipelago ;  there  have  been 
eruptions  of  lava  and  ashes  during  this  century  in 
some  of  the  islands ;  smoke  and  steam  arise  on  St. 
Lucia,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  there 
will  not  be  eruptions  again,  from  some  of  the  many 
craters  upon  the  islands  which  now  seem  so  extinct 
that  a  colony  of  Dutchmen  dwell  peacefully  in  one 
of  them.  Froude  says  :  "  The  islands  are  merely 
volcanic  mountains  with  sides  extremely  steep. 
The  coral  insect  has  made  anchorages  in  the  ba}rs 
and  inlets,  elsewhere  you  are  out  of  soundings  al- 
most immediately."  According  to  another  writer, 
the  West  Indies  are  remains  of  a  mountain  range 
which  at  some  remote  period  united  what  we  now 
call  North  and  South  America.  The  islands  have 
been  repeatedly  likened  to  Vesuvius,  and  the  waters 
about  them  to  the  Bay  of  Naples.  Charles  Kingsley 
in  explaining  this  resemblance,  says:  "Like  causes 
have  produced  like  effects,  and  each  island  is  little 


DISCOVERY   AND   CHARACTERISTICS  11 

but  the  peak  of  a  volcano,  down  whose  shoulders 
lava  and  ashes  have  slidden  toward  the  sea.  Some 
carry  several  crater-cones  complicating  at  once  the 
structure  and  scenery  of  the  island,  but  the  majority 
carry  but  a  single  cone." 

The  soil  formed  from  the  lava  ashes  is  very  rich, 
and  when  well  watered,  as  it  is  by  frequent  rains  in 
most  of  the  islands,  it  is  very  productive.  Among 
the  articles  which  are  chiefly  raised  are  the  sugar- 
cane, tobacco,  coffee,  and  cotton.  Large  establish- 
ments with  improved  machinery  for  making  sugar 
are  to  be  found  upon  most  of  the  islands,  though 
this  industry  has  not  added  to  their  real  wealth  and 
prosperity  since  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves. 
There  are  fine  forests  of  choice  woods,  lignum-vitse, 
mahogany,  and  rosewood,  and  these  forests  which 
cling  to  the  steepest  mountain  sides  have  a  dense 
growth  of  vines  and  ferns  and  orchids,  and  are  full 
of  most  beautiful  but  songless  birds.  There  are  few 
wild  animals  remaining,  but  a  great  variety  of  snakes, 
some  of  which  are  very  dangerous  and  poisonous, 
multitudes  of  lizards  and  insects  of  all  sorts  and 
colors  and  character,  in  which  the  bad  are  pre-emi- 
nent, being  represented  by  the  tarantula  spider  and 
the  mosquito.  The  inhabitants  are  a  curious  mixture 
of  all  European  nationalities,  in  which  English  and 
French  predominate ;  there  are  also  Hindus  and 


12  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

Chinese,  and  negroes  and  the  descendants  of  negroes, 
who  have  been  allied  with  whites,  but  the  blacks  far 
outnumber  the  whites  and  are  steadily  increasing 
while  the  white  population  is  as  steadily  declining. 
It  seems  only  a  matter  of  time  when  these  islands 
will  return,  not  to  the  Indian  tribes  which  Columbus 
found  when  he  discovered  the  New  World,  but  to  the 
descendants  of  a  race  of  black  men  who  were  brought 
to  the  islands  as  slaves. 

This  future  is  discussed  with  earnestness  by  the 
English  writers  who  have  visited  the  West  Indies, 
and  various  plans  are  suggested  by  which  the  evil 
day  may  be  deferred.  Froude  says  that,  as  to  the 
West  Indies,  there  are  only  two  alternatives ;  one  is 
to  leave  them  to  themselves  to  shape  their  own  des- 
tinies ;  the  other  is  to  govern  them  as  England  gov- 
erns India,  and  continues :  "  Great  Britain  leaves  her 
crown  colonies  to  take  care  of  themselves,  refuses 
what  they  ask,  and  forces  on  them  what  they  would 
rather  be  without.  If  I  were  a  West  Indian,  I  should 
feel  that  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  I  should  be 
safer  than  I  was  at  present  from  political  experiment- 
ing. America  would  restore  me  to  hope  and  life; 
Great  Britain  allows  me  to  sink,  contenting  herself 
with  advising  me  to  be  patient."  Sir  Spenser  St. 
John,  in  an  elaborate  work  upon  Hayti,  shows  that  it 
is  a  country  in  a  state  of  decadence,  falling  rapidly 


DISCOVERY  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  13 

to  the  rear  in  the  race  of  civilization ;  and  with  the 
steady  withdrawal  of  the  pure  whites  from  the  other 
islands,  the  same  results  might  be  expected  to  follow. 
But  it  is  unprofitable  to  theorize ;  we  will  go  and  see 
with  our  own  eyes  the  condition  of  things  and  try  to 
report  them  impartially. 


NEW  TORK    IN   A   SNOWSTORM  —  A   SHIP   WITH   A    HISTORY 

AND    AN   ADVENTUROUS    CAPTAIN RARE    COMPANY 

OUTSAILING   A   BLIZZARD FROM    WINTER   TO    SUMMER 

—  SHIP  ISLAND 

THERE  was  a  dense  snowstorm  enveloping  New 
York  on  the  Saturday  in  February  when  I  started 
for  the  Windward  Islands.  As  I  drove  through  the 
streets  to  the  pier  at  the  foot  of  West  Eleventh  Street 
on  the  Hudson  River  everything  was  wintry  in  the 
extreme.  The  street  cars  had  four  horses,  the  cable 
road  was  being  cleared  by  an  enormous  snow  plough, 
the  lamps  at  the  corners  were  covered  with  great 
white  hoods,  the  employees  of  the  street  cleaning 
bureau  looked  more  helpless  than  usual  as  they 
leaned  reflectively  upon  their  brooms  and  shovels. 
By  the  time  I  had  reached  the  pier  the  large  flakes 
had  formed  a  thick  covering  to  the  carriage  and  its 
load  of  luggage.  A  winter  storm  had  begun  which 
for  the  fury  of  its  winds  and  the  intensity  of  its  cold 
has  been  unmatched  in  many  years.  On  the  ocean 

14 


A   SEA  CHANGE  15 

its  ravages  were  disastrous  beyond  record,  and  even 
now  we  have  not  heard  the  last  of  them.  The  steam- 
ship Madiana  lay  wrapped  in  a  fleecy  mantle  beside 
the  wharf.  She  is  a  large  and  handsome,  a  powerful 
and  well-appointed  vessel  of  3,050  tons,  originally 
built  for  the  English  service  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  and  specially  adapted  for  cruising  in  hot  lati- 
tudes. In  1893  she  was  refitted  for  the  service  of  the 
Quebec  Steamship  Company  between  New  York  and 
the  Windward  Islands.  What  tales  these  ships  could 
tell !  This  steamer  was  first  the  Balmoral  Castle  of 
the  famous  Castle  line,  and  Carey,  one  of  the  Phoenix 
Park  murderers,  who  turned  informer  and  gave  evi- 
dence against  his  associates,  was  sent  on  board  this 
vessel  with  O'Donnell,  another  one  of  the  assassins, 
to  be  deported  to  South  Africa.  O'Donnell  shot  and 
killed  Carey  and  was  returned  to  England  and  hung 
for  his  crime.  The  story  perhaps  clung  to  the  old 
name  of  the  ship. 

However  that  may  be,  when  she  entered  a  new 
service  she  received  a  new  name,  the  Indian  name 
of  Martinique,  Madiana,  sometimes  also  written 
Madinina.  We  have  thoroughly  proved  her  good 
qualities,  in  storm  and  calm,  under  the  northern 
sky  and  the  Southern  Cross.  She  has  been  our  home 
for  many  weeks,  and  a  more  safe,  comfortable,  and 
well-behaved  ship  it  would  be  hard  to  find.  Her 


16  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

captain  is  a  thorough  seaman,  and  his  name,  Rodney 
Fraser,  recalls  some  of  those  stirring  incidents  of 
West  Indian  history,  when  Rodney  the  British  ad- 
miral raised  the  naval  power  of  England  to  its  high- 
est point  in  these  waters.  He  has  faced  danger  and 
death  in  his  sea  service  and  was  once  thrown  from 
the  yard  and  lay  with  a  broken  leg  in  a  cask  of 
oakum,  while  his  ship  sailed  sixteen  days  to  Amster- 
dam. There  the  leg  had  to  be  broken  again  before 
he  could  walk,  and  even  now  there  is  a  curious  swing 
in  his  gait  which  is  not  entirely  due  to  a  life  on  the 
ocean  wave. 

We  were  provisioned  for  a  long  cruise ;  the  tanks 
were  full  of  Croton  water,  there  were  eighteen  tons 
of  pure  ice  in  the  ice-house,  and  in  the  refrigerator 
were  fish  and  flesh  and  flying  fowl  and  butter  and 
milk  and  eggs  and  fruit,  and  abundant  stores  of  all 
kinds  to  supply  the  demands  of  a  large  party  of 
healthy  Americans  for  many  weeks.  From  first  to 
last  the  table  was  well  furnished,  and  the  French 
chef  proved  his  ability,  while  the  stewards  never 
failed  in  attention  and  courtesy.  There  was  no 
crowd  in  the  cabins.  The  ship  could  have  accom- 
modated one  hundred,  but  our  company  only 
numbered  fifty-six,  and  to  this  fact  perhaps  was 
due  the  remarkable  comfort  which  we  enjoyed  in 
a  tropical  excursion  of  such  duration,  where  our 


A   SEA  CHANGE  17 

home  was  always  on  the  vessel.  There  were  four 
clergymen,  two  Protestants  and  two  Roman  Catho- 
lics, one  physician,  three  editors,  half  a  dozen  law- 
yers, nearly  as  many  married  couples,  four  agreeable 
boys  and  girls,  several  single  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
a  jolly  set  of  young  men,  and  gentlemen  of  leisure 
and  of  business.  There  were  no  chronic  invalids 
nor  grumblers,  no  Sir  Oracles  nor  high  mightinesses, 
but  a  happily  adjusted  and  well-balanced  American 
party  bound  for  a  pleasant  cruise,  wind  and 
weather  permitting,  from  northern  frost  and  rigors 
to  sunny  and  warm  southern  seas. 

Under  the  dripping  awnings  we  stood  awhile  in 
the  wintry  air  saying  last  words,  but  when  the  clocks 
struck  twelve  the  deep  whistle  sounded,  the  pro- 
peller began  to  churn  the  ice  in  the  slip,  and  slowly 
the  steamer  moved  out  into  the  North  River  and 
headed  towards  the  bay.  We  soon  passed  the 
Statue  of  Liberty,  which  was  covered  with  a  white 
robe,  and  ploughed  onwards  through  the  Narrows 
towards  Sandy  Hook.  Half-way  down  the  bay  the 
huge  bulk  of  the  Cunard  steamer  Etruria  rushed 
by  us,  snorting  through  her  steam  pipe,  and  throw- 
ing a  white  cataract  of  foaming  water  from  her  bows 
with  every  plunge  into  the  swelling  seas.  Before 
we  discharged  our  pilot  she  was  out  of  sight, 
wrapped  from  view  in  drifting  clouds  of  snow. 


18  CRUISING   AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

From  Sandy  Hook  we  steamed  directly  southeast, 
and  soon  began  to  feel  the  swing  of  the  sea,  which 
increased  as  the  night  came  down.  Next  day  huge 
rollers  came  plumping  over  the  main  deck,  and  now 
and  then  a  wave  crest  mounted  the  upper  deck  and 
buried  the  deck  cabins  in  hissing  wreaths  of  foam. 
One  bark  crossed  our  track  bound  north,  otherwise 
we  were  alone  for  five  days  upon  the  deep.  The 
second  night  closed  in  with  heavy  weather  and 
high  seas,  which  increased  till  it  was  evident  that 
we  were  running  before  a  gale  of  wind.  Had  we 
known  from  what  we  were  escaping,  we  should  have 
been  thankful  that  our  weather  was  no  worse.  All 
day  no  one  was  allowed  on  deck,  and  the  lunch 
table  was  thinly  attended,  but  towards  night  we 
were  off  Bermuda,  the  wind  moderated,  the  sea  grew 
smoother,  the  growing  moon  came  out,  and  the  air 
was  mild.  Next  morning  the  passengers  were  sit- 
ting on  deck  without  overcoats,  though  glad  to  be 
in  the  sunshine,  the  ladies  had  come  to  breakfast, 
and  everybody  was  on  hand  at  noon.  The  sky  was 
flecked  with  light  clouds  like  cotton-wool,  the  sea 
was  blue  like  the  Mediterranean,  and  now  and  then 
patches  of  a  yellowish  brown  seaweed  were  seen 
floating  on  its  surface.  All  day  soft  winds  blew, 
the  sea  grew  to  an  azure  tint  contrasting  beautifully 
with  the  white  lace  work  which  edged  its  broken 


A    SEA   CHANGE  19 

waves.  Evening  came  on  with  new  beauties,  a  half- 
full  moon  directly  overhead,  with  its  evening  star 
at  hand  strangely  brilliant.  The  constellations  be- 
gan to  change  their  places  in  the  sky.  The  "Dip- 
per" was  far  down  towards  the  horizon,  and  the 
North  Star  proportionately  low.  We  sat  out  late 
into  the  night  star-gazing.  Morning  dawned  like  a 
moist  June  morning  in  England,  with  occasional 
brief  showers  and  rainbows  with  broad  bands  of  the 
primary  colors,  then  an  outburst  of  sun  warm  and 
bright. 

We  sat  under  the  awning  and  talked  and  read 
and  enjoyed  the  wonderful  transition  from  winter 
to  late  spring.  The  air '  grew  warmer,  the  ocean 
was  a  deeper  blue,  and  the  afternoon  sun  drove  us 
to  our  cabins  to  put  on  thin  clothes  and  pack  away 
our  heavy  ones.  A  rich  sunset  crowned  a  perfect 
day.  The  sea  was  smooth,  and  the  sun  dropped 
from  a  clear  sky  in  less  than  two  minutes  into  the 
waves.  Immediately  the  wreaths  of  mist  which  had 
been  hovering  near  the  west  took  on  a  rosy  tinge, 
a  deep  green  color  grew  around  the  eastern  horizon, 
which  rose  upward  in  three  distinct  shades,  and  was 
edged  with  soft  folds  of  delicate  pink.  In  the  west 
a  mass  of  umber-colored  clouds  bound  with  flaming 
red  light,  floated  thinner  and  thinner  till  they  were 
transparent.  Then  the  red  glow  faded  and  darkness 


20  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

came  at  once.  Soon  a  single  star  appeared  near 
the  horizon,  like  a  diamond,  and  the  moon  white  as 
silver  rose  unclouded.  A  few  minutes  later  there 
was  an  afterglow,  as  beautiful,  though  not  as  lasting, 
as  those  which  gleam  along  the  Nile;  then  the  host 
of  stars  came  out  and  the  evening  breezes  began  to 
blow.  We  were  all  on  deck ;  a  violin,  a  guitar,  and 
a  mandolin  had  found  their  way  into  the  open  air, 
and  with  music  and  song  the  hours  passed  till  the 
cabins  were  cool,  and  it  was  sweet  to  sleep. 

The  sixth  day  came.  The  sun  rose  fair  after  a 
night  of  soft  showers ;  the  sea  was  as  blue  as  indigo, 
with  little  white  crests  where  the  wind  ruffled  its 
surface.  Schools  of  little  flying  fish,  which  looked 
from  a  distance  like  the  insect  commonly  called 
"devil's  darning  needle,"  fitted  above  the  waves, 
and  the  sunlight  struck  through  their  filmy  wings. 
They  rose  from  the  water  and  flew  straight  forward, 
sometimes  one  hundred  feet,  now  and  then  skim- 
ming the  tops  of  waves,  seeming  to  get  a  new  start 
as  they  touched  the  water.  They  were  not  much 
larger  than  a  large  smelt,  and  their  wings  were 
about  as  long  as  a  man's  hand.  They  are  nice  eat- 
ing, and  plentiful  in  the  Windward  Islands,  espe- 
cially at  Barbados. 

Soon  after  noon  we  began  to  see  the  dim  outline 
of  steep  and  high  hills  on  the  southern  horizon. 


A   SEA   CHANGE  21 

Gradually  they  became  clearer  and  increased  in 
number.  We  could  see  the  surf  dashing  high  on 
the  coasts.  The  lower  parts  of  the  hills  were  rough 
and  rocky,  the  upper  portions  covered  with  vegeta- 
tion and  trees  to  the  tops.  No  houses  or  structures 
of  any  kind  were  visible  on  the  ocean  side.  St. 
Thomas  was  just  ahead  of  us,  and  in  the  southeast 
were  St.  John  and  Tortola.  Towards  the  west  we 
could  discern  the  outlines  of  Porto  Rico  and  its  out- 
lying islands. 

We  scented  the  land  as  well  as  saw  it,  for  the  soft 
breeze  was  laden  with  fragrance.  We  kept  a  straight 
course  towards  a  curious  object  which  seemed  to  be 
a  ship  under  full  sail.  It  is  known  as  Ship  Rock, 
and  so  striking  is  the  resemblance  to  a  vessel  under 
sail  that  one  is  ready  to  credit  the  story  which  is  told 
of  a  French  ship  of  war  a  hundred  years  ago.  She 
was  in  chase  of  buccaneers,  and  seeing  this  rock  on 
a  hazy  morning  supposed  it  to  be  a  ship  under  sail 
and  fired  a  gun  for  her  to  heave  to.  Receiving  no 
reply,  the  Frenchman  laid  his  ship  alongside  and 
poured  a  broadside  into  the  imaginary  foe.  When 
he  wore  ship  and  prepared  to  give  another  broadside 
the  rising  mist  and  the  unmoved  object  showed 
him  that  he  was  attacking  a  rock  and  not  an  enemy. 
The  sunlight  had  faded  away  and  we  entered 
the  harbor  of  St.  Thomas  under  a.  blaz.e  of  light 


22  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

cast  by  the  search  lights  of  the  New  York,  Cincin- 
nati, and  Raleigh,  of  the  North  American  Squad- 
ron, which  were  at  anchor  in  the  outer  harbor. 
Four  ships  of  war  of  other  nations  were  lying  here, 
and  great  festivities  had  been  going  on  and  were 
still  in  progress  when  we  arrived.  The  French 
admiral  was  giving  a  dinner  to  the  officers  of  the 
other  ships,  and  as  we  anchored  between  the  Du- 
quesne  and  the  Moltke,  their  bands  enlivened  our 
evening.  Many  of  the  passengers  went  ashore  in 
boats,  which  is  the  only  method  of  landing  in  these 
waters.  They  strolled  through  the  streets  of  the 
town  of  Charlotte  Amalia,  the  local  name  of  the  only 
town  on  the  island  of  St.  Thomas. 

We  were  about  fifteen  hundred  miles  south- 
east of  New  York,  it  was  the  first  week  in  Feb- 
ruary, the  thermometer  marked  seventy  degrees  as 
we  sat  under  the  moonlight  in  the  picturesque  and 
landlocked  bay,  the  shadow  of  the  high  hills  with 
their  conical  summits  around  us.  By-and-by  the 
youths  returned  from  town  bringing  white  duck  suits 
and  straw  hats,  in  which  they  duly  appeared  at 
breakfast  and  for  weeks  thereafter.  We  were  in  the 
tropics,  winter  was  over  and  gone,  and  in  a  day  or 
two  the  voice  of  the  turtle  was  heard  in  the  land, 
and  the  taste  of  the  turtle  was  ours  to  enjoy. 


IV 
THE  VIRGIN   GROUP 

THE    DANISH    ISLAND    OF  ST.   THOMAS HOW   THE   UNITED 

STATES     LOST     IT WAR    VESSELS     OF     MANY    NATIONS 

BLACK    DIVERS     AND     SHARKS HUMAN    BEASTS    OF 

BURDEN 

THE  Virgin  Islands  form  the  northern  part  of  the 
chain  of  Windward  Islands.  Columbus  discovered 
them  on  St.  Ursula's  Day  and  gave  them  a  name 
commemorative  of  the  eleven  thousand  virgins  whose 
bones,  together  with  St.  Ursula's,  are  now  exhib- 
ited to  credulous  travellers  at  Cologne.  The  islands 
are  mostly  small,  and  some  of  them  are  precipitous 
and  hardly  habitable.  Washed  by  the  waves  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  which  are  dashed  against  them  by 
the  steady  force  of  the  trade  winds,  and  by  furious 
storms,  their  windward  sides  are  rough  and  shaggy, 
and  the  trees  which  grow  on  these  sides  are  so  bent 
out  of  shape,  that  they  look  more  like  flags  than 
trees.  Yet  moisture  and  heat  produce  vegeta- 
tion which  covers  rocks  and  cliffs  that  in  northern 
climes  would  be  bare  and  ironbound.  On  the  lee- 

23 


24  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

ward  or  sheltered  sides  of  the  islands,  trees  and 
shrubs  and  flowers  and  grasses  grow  in  profusion, 
and  where  cultivation  is  given  to  the  soil  it  pro- 
duces abundantly. 

Of  the  Virgin  group,  and  those  which  lie  adjacent, 
St.  Thomas,  St.  John,  St.  Croix  or  Santa  Cruz,  and 
Saba  belong  to  Denmark;  Tortola,  Virgin  Gorda, 
Anegada,  Culebra,  Crab,  and  Anguilla  are  British; 
St.  Martin's  is  divided  between  the  French  and  Dutch, 
and  St.  Bartholomew,  or  St.  Bart  as  it  is  usually 
called,  is  French.  Anguilla  is  a  long,  low,  and  ser- 
pentine island,  treeless  and  unfruitful,  about  fourteen 
miles  in  length  by  three  miles  in  breadth.  It  is 
inhabited  by  a  population  of  twenty-five  hundred ;  of 
these,  less  than  one  hundred  are  whites.  The  people 
are  mostly  devoted  to  pasturage.  Several  small  out- 
lying islands  are  associated  with  Anguilla  in  forming 
a  British  colony,  which  is  under  the  general  govern- 
ment of  St.  Kitt's.  St.  Martin's  is  an  island  of  lofty 
mountains  and  broad  plains,  whose  fertile  plantations 
cover  the  meadows  and  hillsides,  while  dense  forests 
clothe  the  highlands.  It  is  divided  between  the  Dutch 
and  French,  having  about  three  thousand  inhabitants 
of  the  former  and  five  thousand  of  the  latter  national- 
ity. The  great  industry  of  the  place  is  the  evapo- 
ration of  salt.  Twelve  miles  southeast  from  St. 
Martin's  lies  St.  Bartholomew,  which  once  belonged 


THE   VIRGIN   GROUP  25 

to  the  Swedes,  who  named  its  chief  town  Gustavia, 
but  it  is  now  reckoned  as  belonging  to  France. 

St.  Thomas,  a  Danish  island,  has  an  area  of 
twenty-three  square  miles,  little  of  which  is  level  or 
cultivated.  It  lies  in  18  degrees  and  20  minutes 
north  latitude,  and  64  degrees  48  minutes  west  longi- 
tude. Its  highest  point  is  about  fifteen  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea  and  it  consists  of  a  range  of  mountain 
peaks  with  supporting  slopes  or  foot-hills.  There 
are  no  rivers  or  streams,  and  but  a  single  spring  of 
water  on  the  island.  On  this  account,  and  because 
of  its  precipitous  character,  the  soil  is  not  tilled  to 
any  great  extent,  though  a  population  of  fourteen 
thousand  live  on  the  island.  The  climate  is  warm, 
there  are  frequent  showers,  and  it  is  a  healthful 
place  and  a  favorite  resort  for  invalids.  This  was 
the  island  which  Mr.  Seward,  when  secretary  of 
state  in  1866,  bought  for  the  United  States  from  the 
king  of  Denmark  for  five  millions  of  dollars.  It  was 
intended  to  use  the  island  chiefly  as  a  coaling  and 
refitting  station  for  United  States  ships  of  war. 
After  the  bargain  had  been  completed,  Congress 
refused  to  ratify  it,  and  our  government  stood  dis- 
graced, and  the  Danish  king  justly  angry,  before  the 
world.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  how  valuable 
such  a  possession  would  be  to  a  maritime  nation,  and 
how  much  more  valuable  to  the  United  States  than 


26  CRUISING   AMONG   THE   CARIBBEES 

to  any  foreign  power.  Indeed,  a  careful  survey  of 
the  location  of  the  West  Indies,  aside  from  questions 
about  their  populations,  would  convince  any  impar- 
tial observer  that  their  proper  relations  and  destiny 
should  lie  with  the  continent  to  which  they  are  adja- 
cent. Political  and  social  considerations  modify 
such  ideas  materially,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
United  States  would  now  accept  the  outlying  islands 
of  the  continent  as  a  free  gift.  That  we  could  take 
them,  and  govern  them  so  as  to  increase  their  pros- 
perity and  our  own  ultimate  wealth  and  advantage, 
there  is  little  reason  to  doubt. 

We  were  awaked  on  the  morning  after  casting 
anchor  in  the  harbor  of  St.  Thomas  by  strains  of 
martial  music,  and  the  firing  of  salutes  from  the 
French  and  Russian  ships  of  war  which  were 
anchored  in  the  harbor.  Three  vessels  of  our  own 
North  Atlantic  Squadron,  a  German,  and  a  Haytien 
warship  were  here.  The  band  of  the  French  vessel 
played  all  the  national  airs  except  that  of  Germany, 
and  we  were  told  that  on  Emperor  William's  birth- 
day the  Duquesne  was  absent,  having  sailed  away  a 
day  or  two  previous  for  target  practice !  Yet  there 
were  dinners  and  a  formal  interchange  of  courtesies 
between  the  officers  of  all  the  ships,  which  had  culmi- 
nated in  a  grand  ball  on  the  night  before  our  arrival. 

Upon  looking  around  in   the    morning    light    a 


THE  VIRGIN  GROUP  27 

beautiful  scene  met  our  view.  The  harbor  of  St. 
Thomas  is  formed  by  a  semicircle  of  mountains, 
which  throw  out  prominent  headlands  on  each  side 
of  the  entrance.  The  mountains  lie  back  from  the 
sea  and  terminate  in  sharp  ridges  and  peaks.  The 
town  is  built  on  the  slopes  of  three  of  these  moun- 
tains, in  the  little  valleys  between  and  around  the 
curving  shore  at  their  base.  The  mountains  are 
covered  with  green  of  various  shades  which  is 
formed  by  cultivated  patches  of  soil  and  the  foliage 
of  masses  of  different  trees.  On  the  lower  slopes 
white  houses  with  red-tiled  roofs  are  grouped,  each 
house  having  some  garden  or  greenery  about  it. 
Two  large  isolated  structures,  each  with  an  ancient 
tower,  bear  the  names  of  "Bluebeard's  and  Black- 
beard's  Castles."  Their  inhabitants  are  by  no  means 
robber  chiefs,  however,  for  in  one  of  them  lives  Mr. 
Edward  Moron,  the  very  polite  and  hospitable  agent 
of  steamship  companies  which  do  business  here. 

St.  Thomas  is  not  a  producing  island.  Its  import- 
ance consists  in  its  position  as  a  harbor  of  refuge  and 
a  coaling  station,  and  as  a  place  for  refitting  vessels. 
Almost  its  only  industry  is  the  manufacture  of  bay 
oil  and  bay  rum,  for  which  the  materials  are  brought 
from  other  islands  like  Porto  Rico  and  Dominica,  but 
there  is  a  good  market  supplied  not  only  with  West 
Indian  products  but  with  the  goods  of  many  nations. 


28  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

The  harbor  has  from  three  to  nine  fathoms  of  water, 
will  afford  safe  anchorage  for  several  hundred 
vessels,  and  is  constantly  used  by  steamers  from 
Europe  and  the  United  States,  as  well  as  by  a  great 
number  of  sailing  ships  and  coasters.  Upon  our  first 
visit,  this  harbor  was  full  of  vessels,  besides  the  men- 
of-war  of  which  I  have  spoken.  Upon  our  second 
visit  we  found,  among  others,  a  German  steamer 
which  left  New  York  the  day  after  we  sailed,  and 
had  put  in  here  in  distress,  after  battling  with  the 
elements  for  sixteen  days,  her  decks  swept,  her  bridge 
and  wheelhouse  gone,  one  of  her  officers  drowned, 
and  her  hold  half  full  of  water.  In  another  part  of 
the  harbor  was  a  schooner  dismasted  and  damaged, 
which  had  been  blown  far  out  of  her  course,  which 
lay  from  New  York  to  Maine,  and  found  refuge 
away  down  here  in  the  tropics.  We  could  not  be 
too  thankful  for  the  kind  Providence  which  had 
ordered  our  sailing  from  New  York  a  few  days  before 
one  of  the  severest  weeks  in  many  seasons,  during 
which  the  ocean  was  swept  by  fearful  gales.  We 
felt  the  beginning  of  the  storm,  but  before  it  had 
reached  its  height  were  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  under 
the  friendly  protection  of  the  Windward  Islands. 

Before  we  were  ready  to  go  ashore,  the  steamer 
was  surrounded  with  boats  manned  by  negroes  who 
were  eager  to  secure  us  as  passengers,  and  by  canoes 


THE  VIRGIN   GROUP  29 

and  boxes,  from  which  naked  dark-skinned  youths 
were  begging  to  dive  for  silver  coins.  This  novel 
method  of  begging  proved  very  successful,  arid  the 
sides  of  the  ship  were  lined  with  passengers  eager  to 
part  with  small  coin.  No  sooner  did  the  coins  touch 
the  water,  than  the  divers  would  plunge  out  of  their 
frail  craft,  and  follow  them  down  rapidly,  getting 
beneath  the  sinking  coins  and  soon  reappearing  with 
them  in  their  hands.  These  black  divers  paid  no 
heed  to  the  huge  sharks  which  we  could  plainly  see 
swimming  about  the  ship,  and  seemed  to  enjoy  entire 
immunity  from  them.  Sometimes  several  divers 
would  plunge  after  a  single  coin  and  contend 
beneath  the  surface  for  its  possession,  remaining 
under  water  for  so  long  a  time  that  we  thought  they 
would  surely  be  drowned.  At  last  they  would 
reappear,  the  victor  holding  the  coin  high  above  his 
head,  and  the  whole  group  puffing  and  blowing  like 
a  school  of  porpoises.  All  day  they  haunted  the 
steamer,  calling  to  those  who  looked  over  the  rail : 
"Father,  throw  a  sixpence  to  your  son;"  "Massa, 
see  your  boy  dive  for  one  shilling ; "  "  Now,  missis, 
see  I  not  'fraid  shark,  down  I  go."  At  nearly  all  the 
islands  similar  black  divers  surrounded  the  vessel, 
and  afforded  great  amusement  by  swimming  races 
and  diving  under  the  keel,  as  well  as  by  catching 
coins  before  they  could  reach  the  bottom.  As  the 


30 

water  was  often  so  clear  that  the  bottom  could  be 
seen  at  a  depth  of  seven  fathoms,  their  movements 
could  be  plainly  traced  beneath  the  surface. 

Before  going  ashore  at  St.  Thomas  some  of  the 
party  rowed  over  beyond  the  huge  dry  dock,  to  see 
the  women  dumping  coal  from  a  large  British  steamer 
which  had  just  arrived  with  a  cargo.  The  vessel 
was  alongside  a  jetty,  and  a  wide  gang-plank  had 
been  rigged  from  its  deck  to  the  pier.  Two  files 
of  women  passed  up  and  down  this  plank  constantly, 
one  line  bearing  baskets  containing  a  hundred 
pounds  of  coal  on  their  heads  down  the  plank,  and 
the  others  balancing  the  empty  baskets  as  they 
walked  up  to  have  them  filled.  They  walked  from 
the  hips,  keeping  the  body  perpendicular,  and  sang 
a  sort  of  a  rhythmical  chant  as  they  stepped  swiftly 
along  to  the  dumping  ground.  Black,  rough,  coarse 
in  face  and  feature  beyond  description,  they  seemed 
like  huge  human  beasts  of  burden.  With  long  arms, 
great  prehensile  hands  and  fingers,  large,  misshapen, 
and  unshod  feet,  with  dirty  turbans  on  their  heads, 
bare  breasts,  and  rags  half  concealing  their  naked- 
ness, they  marched  up  and  down  the  planks  for 
hours,  a  weird  and  disgusting  spectacle.  The  pay 
is  prompt  and  good,  and  many  women  and  girls  earn 
a  living  for  the  family  by  this  hard  and  dirty  work. 
They  become  rude  and  vulgar  as  the  natural  con- 


THE  VIRGIN   GEOUP  31 

sequence  of  such  an  employment,  and  when  work 
is  done  they  are  ready  for  a  drinking  bout  or 
a  satyr's  dance.  But  in  these  tropical  countries 
negro  men  and  women  do  all  the  work,  and  do  it 
under  the  most  primitive,  difficult,  and  disagreeable 
conditions. 


V 

ST.  THOMAS  AND   ITS   PEOPLE 

LANDING    UNDER    DIFFICULTIES STRANGE    FRUITS    AND 

SHELLS TOBACCO,    CIGARS,    AND    SPIRITS DOMINANT 

RACES  —  RELIGION,  WORK,  AND  WAGES  IN  ST.  THOMAS 

THERE  are  no  piers  or  wharves  at  any  of  the  ports 
in  the  Windward  Islands,  except  at  St.  Lucia. 
Freight  is,  therefore,  put  on  board  or  removed  in 
lighters,  and  passengers  and  their  luggage  are  trans- 
ferred in  most  cases  by  means  of  rowboats.  At  St. 
John's  on  the  island  of  Antigua  and  at  Port  of 
Spain  on  Trinidad  this  service  was  performed  by 
a  steam  launch.  With  these  exceptions,  the  black 
boatmen  had  to  do  the  transportation,  and  very  eager 
they  were  to  get  the  job.  But  for  the  forethought 
of  the  steamship  company  and  the  attention  of  its 
officers  we  should  have  been  the  prey  of  a  howl- 
ing mob  of  boatmen,  to  who'm  the  wild  Arabs  of  Tan- 
gier would  have  been  as  tame  as  sucking  doves. 
Each  passenger  was  furnished  with  boat  tickets, 
and  the  purser  and  his  aids  summoned  the  boats 
in  order  and  determined  how  many  each  should 
carry.  In  spite  of  these  preliminaries  and  limita- 

32 


ST.   THOMAS   AND  ITS   PEOPLE  33 

tions,  embarkation  either  in  going  or  coming  was 
of  the  nature  of  pandemonium  and  purgatory.  Each 
boatman  would  seek  to  get  the  bow  of  his  boat 
nearest  the  gangway  or  staircase  which  hung  along- 
side the  ship,  and  as  there  was  often  a  swell  and 
always  the  chance  of  tumbling  overboard,  these 
scenes  were  sometimes  exciting.  Yelling  and  scream- 
ing, pushing  and  pulling,  vociferating  the  names  and 
attractions  of  their  boats,  and  abusing  one  another 
in  the  grossest  language,  the  half-naked  negroes 
struggled  arid  bid  for  passengers.  When  once  these 
were  obtained,  the  tempest  of  words  ceased,  and  the 
oarsmen  pulled  with  perfect  good-nature  and  much 
deliberation  to  the  landing-place.  But  though  the 
boatmen  ceased  to  quarrel,  they  never  ceased  to 
chatter  and  to  either  laugh  or  sing.  Some  travellers 
have  spoken  of  the  silence  and  melancholy  of  the 
black  races.  These  quietists  do  not  live  in  the 
West  Indies ;  the  whole  population  chatter  and  laugh 
and  make  a  noise  all  the  time  that  they  are  awake, 
and  the  language  which  they  use  at  most  of  the 
islands,  in  talking  with  each  other,  is  utterly  unin- 
telligible to  the  ordinary  linguist.  They  speak 
English  to  the  visitor  or  tourist  in  all  the  islands 
except  those  which  belong  to  France,  and  under- 
stand him  in  his  own  tongue,  but  between  them- 
selves they  have  a  jargon  curiously  compounded. 


34  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

Morning  had  not  fully  dawned  before  a  fleet  of 
small  boats,  with  from  one  to  three  negroes,  clustered 
around  the  steamer.  From  these  boats  certain  privi- 
leged women  came  on  deck  and  established  a  bazaar 
under  the  awning,  where  they  displayed  oranges, 
bananas,  green  cocoanuts,  sugar-cane,  sapodillas,  and 
other  fruits,  together  with  skull-caps,  mats,  and  bags 
made  of  shining  seeds,  and  strings  of  red  and  white 
beans,  and  other  West  Indian  curiosities,  which 
were  tempting  to  the  eye.  In  the  boats  were  fruits 
and  shells,  and  long  branches  of  coral  and  palm  tree 
canes,  all  of  which  were  offered  at  such  low  prices 
that  the  passengers  were  soon  well  supplied. 

We  landed  at  St.  Thomas  in  front  of  a  little 
square  which  was  overhung  with  palm  and  mango 
trees,  and  also  shaded  by  lofty  ferns,  and  were  at 
once  among  a  strange  population.  A  few  white 
men,  standing  here  and  there,  were  entirely  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  crowd  of  black,  brown,  and  yellow 
men  and  women.  The  clothing  of  the  crowd  was 
brilliant  in  color,  but  scanty  in  amount,  the  men 
wearing  little  save  short  trousers  and  an  old  straw  or 
felt  hat,  and  the  women  a  single  robe  of  dirty  white 
or  pink,  looped  up  to  the  knee,  with  a  turban  made 
from  a  gaudy  bandanna  handkerchief  on  the  head. 
The  children  were  all  dressed  in  black,  just  as  nature 
made  them,  with  eyes  that  shone  like  glass  beads, 


ST.   THOMAS   AND   ITS   PEOPLE  35 

and  white  ivory  teeth  that  gleamed  and  smiled  all 
the  time  as  they  ran  or  tumbled  about.  Some  of  the 
women  were  carrying  trays  full  of  vegetables,  fruit, 
bread,  or  small  wares  upon  their  heads ;  others  were 
squatting  upon  their  heels,  while  in  front  of  them 
were  little  piles  of  sweet  potatoes,  peppers,  limes,  or 
a  few  sticks  of  sugar-cane ;  others  again  were  hawk- 
ing strings  of  shells  and  shining  beans  called  "  Job's 
tears,"  or  pieces  of  coral  and  sweet  cakes.  The  town 
of  Charlotte  Amalia  is  mostly  built  along  one  street 
which  curves  with  the  shore,  and  there  is  a  road 
in  each  direction  beyond  the  shops.  The  red  tiled 
roofs  of  white  houses  rise  in  regular  gradations 
from  the  business  street  for  some  distance  up  the 
mountain  side,  so  that  the  view  from  the  water 
is  picturesque.  If  one  climbs  to  the  hill  above 
the  town,  he  obtains  a  charming  picture,  of  which 
the  high-colored  villas  form  the  foreground,  the 
beautiful  bay,  with  its  ships  and  little  islands, 
occupies  the  middle  distance,  while  beyond,  across 
the  blue  sea,  are  the  shadowy  forms  of  other  islands 
like  Santa  Cruz  and  Porto  Rico. 

The  island  of  St.  Thomas  belongs  to  Denmark, 
but  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  that  there  is  a  little 
band  of  Danish  soldiers  here,  that  the  Danish  flag 
is  hoisted  on  the  public  buildings  and  the  dilapi- 
dated fort,  and  that  one  gets  change  for  American 


86  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEE5 

dollars  in  money  that  is  current  nowhere  else,  even 
among  diving  boys,  this  ownership  might  pass  un- 
heeded. The  business  seems  to  be  done  largely 
by  English,  Spanish,  and  Jews;  there  is,  as  I  have 
remarked,  little  planting  and  much  importing;  there 
is  said  to  be  also  a  good  deal  of  smuggling  from  the 
island  to  the  United  States,  of  tobacco,  cigars,  and 
spirits.  Certainly  the  cigars  which  come  into  St. 
Thomas  without  duty  offer  a  temptation  to  smug- 
glers. The  best  Cuban  cigars,  which  sell  in  New 
York  for  seventeen  and  twenty  dollars  a  hundred, 
were  purchased  by  some  of  pur  party  for  eight  and 
ten  dollars,  and  we  bought  delicious  bay  rum  at 
twenty  cents  a  bottle,  which  costs  three  or  four 
times  as  much  in  the  United  States. 

The  population  of  St.  Thomas  is  about  fifteen 
thousand,  and  they  are  mostly  black.  We  began  to 
see  at  once  the  fact,  which  was  impressed  upon  us 
more  and  more  forcibly  at  each  island,  that  black 
people  inhabit  the  West  Indies,  and  that  the  great 
majority  of  these  black  people  are  negroes.  There 
are  mixed  races  which  have  been  formed  by  the  union 
of  white  and  colored  people,  but  the  black  effaces  the 
white,  and  in  general  where  there  has  been  negro  blood 
in  the  alliance  it  dominates  in  the  result.  Black 
people  everywhere  formed  the  rule,  with  white  people 
now  and  then  as  exceptions.  But  yet  the  whites  are 


ST.   THOMAS   AND   ITS   PEOPLE  37 

the  rulers  and  magnates.  They  chiefly  own  the  es- 
tates or  manage  them  for  absentee  owners,  they  are 
the  agents  and  shippers,  and  they  usually  bear  them- 
selves with  the  pride  of  a  conscious  superiority 
towards  the  other  races.  I  say  races,  for  in  some 
of  the  islands  there  are  Caribs,  and  Hindus,  and 
Chinese,  besides  the  Creole  descendants  of  English 
and  French  and  Spanish  people.  As  for  religion,  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith  pervades  the  islands.  In  the 
English  possessions  there  is  always  a  Church  of 
England,  which  embraces  the  English  planters  and 
their  attorneys,  and  a  few  of  the  West  Indians 
and  negroes;  also  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  church, 
which  is  nearly,  if  not  quite,  composed  of  black  mem- 
bers with  a  black  pastor.  Both  of  these  churches 
are  well  supported  in  British  islands,  but  the  masses 
of  the  people  everywhere  are  Roman  Catholics.  In 
the  French  islands  the  exceptions  are  not  worth  men- 
tioning, and  in  all,  the  influence  of  the  priests  over 
the  colored  people  is  great,  and  usually  beneficent. 
They  exhort  them  to  industry,  and  faithfulness  in 
their  relations  to  each  other ;  they  urge  marriage,  it 
must  be  said  with  small  success  so  far  as  the  legal 

and  ceremonial  contract  is  concerned,  but  there  is 

i 

much  fidelity  really  practised  without  oath  or 
promise. 

I  had  heard  a  great  deal  of  the  indolence  of  the 


38  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

4 

negroes  in  the  West  Indies.  I  saw  little.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  low  pay  for  labor  —  from 
four  cents  a  day,  in  Barbados,  to  a  shilling  or  thirty 
cents  a  day  in  the  best  labor  market  of  the 
islands  —  and  considering  also  climate  and  the  possi- 
bility of  easy  existence  without  laboring,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  the  negroes  were  an  industrious  class 
of  people.  They  are  very  strong,  and  use  their 
strength  without  stint;  they  have  few  resources 
when  they  are  not  actually  at  work,  and  hence 
they  lounge  about  or  lie  in  the  sun,  and  chatter  and 
laugh  immoderately;  but  on  the  plantations,  in  the 
sugar-houses,  in  the  loading  and  unloading  of  ves- 
sels, as  porters  and  servants,  and  in  all  menial 
employments,  they  appeared  as  industrious,  and  far 
more  faithful  than  the  high-priced  laborers  of  New 
York  City  or  of  the  farming  regions  of  America  with 
which  I  am  acquainted.  For  downright,  wicked 
laziness  the  full-paid  employee  on  the  public  works 
of  New  York  City  can  beat  any  West  Indian  negro 
out  of  sight.  The  negroes  are  not  thriftless  either. 
The  savings  banks  in  the  islands  are  full  of  their 
deposits.  In  St.  John's,  Antigua,  the  savings  bank 
holds  forty  thousand  pounds.  One-quarter  of  this 
belongs  to  negroes,  and  out  of  nineteen  hundred 
depositors  they  represent  more  than  one-half.  This  is 
but  an  example  of  what  is  true  of  other  islands  also. 


ST.   THOMAS   AND  ITS   PEOPLE  39 

t» 

Most  of  the  white  people  have  come  to  the  West 
Indies  to  make  a  fortune  and  intend  to  return  to 
Europe  or  America  to  spend  it ;  they  are  not  careful 
to  contribute  to  the  interests  of  their  temporary 
home,  except  so  far  as  these  bear  upon  their  ultimate 
prosperity.  To  this  fact  is  due  in  a  large  degree  a 
deterioration  of  morals  and  personal  character  among 
the  black  people,  who  are  naturally  imitative  and  are 
powerfully  influenced  by  the  superior  race ;  but  they 
are  very  much  better  than  they  have  been  portrayed 
by  careless  and  often  immoral  writers  and  travellers. 

St.  Thomas  has  a  public  library  and  hospital,  few 
sights  except  the  robber  castles  and  the  house  where 
Santa  Anna  lived  when  he  was  banished  as  a  traitor 
from  Mexico;  and  its  great  interest  centres  in  the 
arrival  and  presence  of  ships  of  war,  for  which  it  is  a 
favorite  winter  resort,  and  of  other  vessels  which  put 
into  the  port  for  repairs.  It  had  given  us  our  first  taste 
of  life  in  the  Caribbean  Islands,  and  we  were  ready 
for  new  experiences.  Laden  with  bay  rum,  and 
island  postage  stamps,  which  had  a  boom  at  the  time 
of  our  visit,  with  Carib  baskets  filled  with  green 
cocoanuts,  sapodillas,  soursops,  green  oranges  of  de- 
licious odor,  and  bunches  of  tiny  bananas,  we  made 
our  way  back  to  the  Madiana.  The  cargo  had  been 
unloaded,  the  hatches  were  on,  and  at  four  o'clock 
the  anchor  was  out  of  its  bed,  the  vessel  had  swung 


40  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAKIBBEES 

around  and  was  headed  for  Santa  Cruz,  which  could 
be  dimly  seen  upon  the  horizon  forty  miles  away  due 
south.  The  rich  green  of  the  mountain  deepened  to 
purple  as  we  moved  out  of  the  harbor,  the  picture  of 
the  town  gradually  diminished  till  it  was  like  a  view 
from  the  wrong  end  of  an  opera  glass,  and  the  war- 
ships became  white  dots  on  the  black  water.  More 
and  more  faint  the  outline  of  St.  Thomas  faded  as 
the  sun  dropped,  and  night  came  quickly,  recalling 
the  oft-quoted  lines  of  Coleridge's  "Ancient  Mar- 
iner " :  — 

"  The  sun's  rim  dips,  the  stars  rush  out, 
At  one  stride  comes  the  dark." 

Then  the  moon  appeared,  clear  and  full,  and  all  the 
sea  glowed  in  her  silver  light.  A  gentle  breeze 
ruffled  the  waters,  the  air  was  pure  and  balmy,  and 
we  were  in  a  region  of  terrestrial  delight. 


VI 

SANTA  CRUZ 

COLDEST    DAY   FOB  TEARS DRINKING   FRESH  COCOANUTS 

SUGAR   CANE    PLANTATIONS HOW   SUGAR    IS    MADE 

BY     A     NEW     ENGLANDER ON     BOARD     THE     CRUISER 

NEW   YORK 

SANTA  CRUZ  is  but  a  few  hours'  sail  from  St. 
Thomas,  and  there  are  schooners  which  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  trade  winds  make  the  run  back  arid  forth 
several  times  a  week.  We  left  St.  Thomas  between 
four  and  five  o'clock  and  by  eight  had  made  the  run 
of  forty  miles  and  cast  anchor  in  the  roadstead. 
Santa  Cruz  is  the  largest  of  the  Virgins,  being 
twenty-five  miles  long  and  five  miles  wide.  It  sus- 
tains a  population  of  about  twenty-five  thousand,  and 
though  the  island  belongs  to  Denmark  the  people 
speak  English,  and  give  no  signs  of  their  nationality 
beyond  their  little  garrison  and  its  flag.  As  soon  as 
the  anchor  was  down,  the  young  men  of  the  party 
went  ashore.  They  returned  with  glowing  accounts 
of  a  dramatic  festival  which  they  had  attended  in  a 
Moravian  church,  where  amateurs  were  entertaining 

41  , 


42  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

five  hundred  people  in  a  building  designed  for  three 
hundred.  As  the  waits  were  long  and  both  actors 
and  audience  were  negroes,  the  atmosphere  soon 
became  intolerable  for  the  New  Yorkers.  They  had 
seen  and  heard  enough,  however,  to  awaken  our 
curiosity  and  they  brought  back  a  band  of  negro 
minstrels  in  a  boat,  who  made  night  hideous.  The 
next  morning  was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
island.  The  thermometer  marked  sixty-seven  de- 
grees at  eight  o'clock.  This  is  unprecedented  for 
Santa  Cruz,  where  during  the  winter  the  mercury 
usually  ranges  from  seventy-six  degrees  to  eighty- 
two  degrees,  and  the  climate  is  very  equable.  The 
oldest  inhabitant — I  regret  that  I  failed  to  obtain 
his  age  —  declared  that  it  was  the  coldest  winter 
day  for  many  years,  and  he  feared  that  they  would 
have  snow!  We  had  just  read  a  meagre  telegram 
from  New  York,  which  stated  that  there  was  a 
blizzard  there  with  thermometer  several  degrees 
below  zero;  so  buttoning  up  our  linen  jackets, 
we  thanked  God  that  we  were  not  in  New  York 
but  amid  the  winter  scenes  of  the  West  Indies. 

By  daylight  the  island  of  Santa  Cruz  seemed  most 
attractive.  It  is  not  so  abrupt  and  severe  as  some  of 
its  associates,  though  it  bears  abundant  evidences  of 
volcanic  origin.  It  consists  of  a  multitude  of  little 
peaks  and  rounded  hills,  with  ravines  and  valleys 


SANTA  CRUZ  43 

between  them,  and  trends  off  towards  the  south  into 
lowland  plains  and  a  tongue  of  land  and  sands.  The 
mountains,  where  uncultivated,  are  colored  a  bluish 
green,  but  where  the  sugar-cane  is  largely  grown,  the 
color  of  the  country  is  so  light  and  rich  a  green  that 
it  seems  as  if  opening  spring  had  just  spread  her  man- 
tle over  the  land.  Yet  the  cane  is  all  ready  to  be  cut, 
and  we  saw  loads  of  it  being  carted  to  the  mills.  The 
colors  of  hillsides  and  savannas  are  beautifully  con- 
trasted on  this  island;  there  are  long  avenues  of 
cocoa  palms,  with  trunks  rising  fifty  feet  like  pol- 
ished marble  shafts,  and  then  bursting  out  into  a  mir- 
acle of  waving  foliage  and  nests  full  of  golden-green 
cocoanuts.  I  offered  a  negro  boy  a  sixpence,  and  he 
at  once  "  shinned  "  up  the  smooth  pillar  and  brought 
me  down  two  of  the  great  green  globes.  I  opened 
one  end  with  my  knife  and  drank  a  delicious,  cool 
draught  of  sweet  and  juicy  liquid.  It  was  neither 
water  nor  sirup;  it  was  simply  "the  milk  in  the 
cocoanut " ! 

There  are  two  towns  on  the  island,  Frederikstad 
and  Christiansted,  which  are  not  known  by  these 
names,  but  are  generally  called  "  West  End  "  and 
"Basse  End."  Our  view  of  Frederikstad  from  the 
vessel  had  prepared  us  for  a  beautiful  place.  It  has 
some  buildings  with  arched  fronts  and  many  white 
and  pink  and  yellow  houses,  half  hidden  among 


44  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

strange  tamarind  and  palm  and  mango  trees,  but 
when  we  got  ashore  the  vision  vanished.  The 
arcades  were  clumsy  and  crumbling  and  dirty ; 
the  streets  unpaved  and  irregular,  and  the  cabins 
where  the  negroes  lived  were  far  from  picturesque. 
Throughout  the  islands  these  cabins  are  small  and 
inexpensive,  and  often  dilapidated  and  ruinous  in 
the  extreme.  The  shanties  which  are  built  along  the 
lines  of  new  railroads  in  the  United  States  for  work- 
men, are  nicer  than  the  majority  of  these  negro 
houses.  They  are  built  of  wood,  and  usually  con- 
sist of  one  or  two  rooms,  in  which  a  large  family  is 
huddled  at  night.  The  people  spend  most  of  the 
daytime  out  of  doors,  and  meals  are  prepared  in  the 
open  air.  There  is  no  glass  in  the  windows  and 
wooden  shutters  serve  to  keep  out  the  wind  and 
rain.  The  foundations  are  rarely  more  than  a  few 
posts  or  large  stones.  A  tempest  would  easily  over- 
turn these  cabins,  and  they  are  placed  so  near  to- 
gether in  the  towns  that  a  fire  would  naturally  burn 
a  great  number  before  it  could  be  put  out.  When, 
therefore,  we  hear  that  a  hurricane  or  a  fire  has  de- 
stroyed several  hundred  houses  in  a  West  India  island, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  conclude  that  a  vast  amount 
of  property  has  been  destroyed.  The  buildings  serve 
the  purposes  of  a  shelter  and  a  rendezvous  for  the 
family,  and  if  destroyed,  they  can  be  easily  replaced. 


SANTA  CEUZ  45 

Santa  Cruz  is  covered  with  sugar-cane  plantations. 
They  climb  the  hills  and  crown  many  of  them,  and 
skirt  precipices,  and  sweep  their  waves  of  golden 
green  down  to  kiss  the  white  sea-waves.  The  sugar 
interest  is  dreadfully  depressed  now,  but  the  plant 
for  making  sugar  is  here,  the  capital  has  been 
invested,  the  land  has  been  given  up  to  the  sugar-cane 
culture ;  what  can  the  planters  do  ?  Beet  sugar, 
and  the  low  price  of  sugar  in  England  and  in  the 
United  States,  competition  and  hard  times  have 
joined  to  render  sugar  planting  unprofitable  ;  all  the 
planters  feel  poor,  while  many  think  that  they  are 
ruined.  Others,  more  sensible,  have  awakened  to 
the  folly  of  cultivating  only  one  staple,  and  are  try- 
ing to  change  their  plans  for  the  future ;  some  have 
kept  right  on  in  spite  of  losses,  in  the  hope  that  bet- 
ter times  will  come  to  help  them.  The  emancipation 
of  the  slaves  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  West  Indies,  and  they  have  never  recovered 
from  the  entire  revolution  in  labor  which  this  change 
produced.  The  negroes  are  hard-working  men  and 
women,  but  it  is  after  a  fashion  of  their  own.  They 
will  work  only  when  and  as  they  please.  Such 
labor  is  unfavorable  to  regular  production,  and  un- 
profitable where  competition  is  keen  and  margins  are 
small.  The  sugar  question  of  the  West  India  islands 
is  one  of  the  most  serious  which  now  confronts  com- 


46  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

merce,  and  it  demands  careful  study,  judicious  prac- 
tical treatment,  and  wise  legislation  for  its  solution. 

Meanwhile  the  islands  are  still  covered  with  the 
green  fields  of  cane,  among  which  run  superb  roads, 
beneath  avenues  of  cocoa  palms.  Drives  in  the  island 
of  Santa  Cruz,  over  these  roads,  led  us  into  valleys 
where  there  were  tamarind  trees  delicate  leaved  as 
our  locust,  and  giants  called  flamboyants,  leafless 
but  all  aflame  with  scarlet  flowers  ;  and  the  silk  cot- 
tonwood  with  enormous  misshapen  roots  and  long 
horizontal  branches,  on  which  grew  a  multitude  of 
parasites  and  air  plants.  Here,  too,  were  the  curi- 
ously formed  frangipani,  with  hooked  or  claw-like 
branches,  the  banana  tree  with  clustering  fruit  and 
its  huge  purple  and  cone-like  blossom.  Flowers  of 
all  colors  and  shapes,  from  the  fragrant  white  jasmine 
to  the  yellow  and  red  cacti,  adorned  the  roadsides. 
Black  pelicans  floated  on  the  sea,  or  sailed  in  long 
and  continuous  flight  through  the  air;  the  groves 
were  never  without  modest  music  from  numbers  of 
elegantly  dressed  birds,  and  innumerable  brilliant 
butterflies  harmonized  in  the  beauty  of  their  coloring 
with  the  superb  flowers  upon  which  they  fed. 

It  was  at  Santa  Cruz  that  we  first  visited  a  large 
sugar  plantation.  Driving  on  a  fine  hard  road, 
neither  muddy  nor  dusty,  beneath  a  noble  avenue  of 
cocoa  palms,  which  bordered  fields  of  sugar-cane,  we 


SANTA  CRUZ  47 

came  in  due  time  to  the  sugar  mills  of  Bartram 
Brothers,  one  of  the  largest  establishments  on  the 
island.  It  is  under  the  care  and  management  of 
Colonel  Blackwood,  a  retired  Maine  sailor,  who 
knows  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main  by 
heart.  After  many  voyages  he  has  cast  anchor  here, 
and  is  doing  his  best  to  make  these  fields  and  mills 
remunerative.  Thus  far,  by  introducing  new  machin- 
ery, by  keeping  up  with  the  times,  and  by  untiring 
industry  and  personal  supervision,  he  has  made  them 
pay,  but  the  present  outlook  is  almost  discouraging 
even  to  such  sagacious  industry.  The  colonel  showed 
us  the  processes  of  growth  and  manufacture  in  detail 
and  with  extreme  courtesy.  The  cane  is  planted  on 
prepared  ground  in  wide  rows,  in  the  fall,  and  grows 
to  a  great  height  in  a  year's  time.  It  must  be  hoed 
and  kept  free  from  weeds.  The  resemblance  of  a 
cane  field  to  a  closely  planted  field  of  Indian  corn  is 
striking.  When  it  has  attained  its  growth,  black 
men  and  women  cut  the  cane  with  a  machete  or  cut- 
lass, trim  off  the  leaves  and  pack  it  into  carts,  which 
are  drawn  by  oxen  or  mules  to  the  weigh-house,  which 
usually  stands  close  to  the  mill.  As  soon  as  the  cane 
has  been  weighed,  it  is  pitched  upon  a  moving 
inclined  plane,  which  carries  it  up  to  the  cutter  and 
squeezing  rollers.  These  seize  it,  and  the  sweet 
juice,  colored  a  dirty  brown,  comes  out  beneath  the 


48  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

rollers,  and  is  conducted  to  and  through  a  variety  of 
strainers,  and  boilers,  and  vacuum  pans,  and  wringers, 
until  it  appears  in  brightest  sugar  crystals,  though 
still  very  brown.  It  is  then  placed  in  canvas  bags  of 
three  hundred  and  two  pounds  each,  and  marked  to 
be  shipped  for  refining.  The  molasses,  which  is 
sweet  refuse  from  the  boiling,  is  taken  off  into  tanks 
during  the  process  and  barrelled.  The  waste  cane, 
called  "  bagasse  "  is  dried  in  the  open  air  and  used 
for  fuel.  One  of  the  labor-saving  processes  invented 
by  Colonel  Blackwood  enables  him  to  burn  the 
bagasse  just  as  it  comes  from  the  rollers.  The  whole 
of  this  establishment  is  run  by  steam  power,  and  the 
machinery  is  most  expensive  and  elaborate.  Many 
mills  are  simple,  the  power  being  obtained  from  a 
windmill  and  the  machinery  being  very  primitive. 
These  mills  in  good  times  have  made  as  fair  com- 
parative profits  for  their  owners  as  the  more  costly 
ones  on  account  of  the  small  cost  of  running  them,  but 
when  times  are  bad  and  competition  is  keen  they  can- 
not make  money.  Everywhere  upon  the  islands  are 
abandoned  plantations,  and  buildings  going  to  decay. 
This  is  due  to  many  causes,  among  which  are  the 
absentee  system  of  ownership,  lack  of  thrift  in  man- 
agement, extravagant  modes  of  living,  the  unreliable 
character  of  labor.  But  recently,  added  to  all  these 
reasons  has  been  the  competition  of  the  beet  -root  sub- 


SANTA  CRUZ  49 

sidized  sugar  of  Germany,  and  the  low  price  of  the 
cane  sugar  in  almost  all  civilized  countries.  One 
owner  told  me  that  his  estate  and  mill,  which  three 
years  ago  paid  him  more  than  fifty  thousand  dollars' 
profit,  would  this  year  hardly  pay  expenses.  The  is- 
lands have  been  so  entirely  given  up  to  sugar  cultiva- 
tion that  it  will  be  years  before  they  can  recover  from 
the  great  losses  which  these  hard  times  involve,  or  be- 
fore they  can  raise  up  new  industries  to  take  the  place 
of  those  which  have  failed. 

A  New  Haven  shipowner,  Captain  Perkins,  who 
has  settled  in  a  charming  part  of  Santa  Cruz  after 
more  than  a  hundred  voyages  to  the  Caribbees, 
kindly  invited  us  to  his  house  and  treated  us  most 
hospitably.  His  piazza  looks  upon  the  turquoise  sea, 
over  which  our  White  Squadron  was  tracing  its 
course  in  lines  of  foam,  as  the  gunboats  steamed 
towards  the  roadstead ;  the  garden  was  full  of  tropi- 
cal fruits  and  flowers,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  house  stood,  were  some  of  the  most  majes- 
tic mahogany  and  cottonwood  and  thibet  trees  that  I 
have  ever  seen.  The  afternoon  passed  rapidly  away 
in  pleasant  visiting,  and  before  the  evening  gun  was 
fired,  some  of  us  went  on  board  of  the  cruiser  New 
York.  We  were  courteously  welcomed  by  Admiral 
Meade  and  shown  over  the  vessel  by  the  chaplain, 
Rev.  Mr,  Clark,  who  is  a  Methodist  Episcopal  clergy- 


60  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

man  hailing  from  Calais,  Me.,  and  has  been  at  the 
Annapolis  Naval  Academy  and  in  the  navy  for 
twenty-two  years. 

Some  of  the  party  had  taken  a  long  drive  and 
dined  at  a  vast  hotel  at  Christiansted  or  Basse  End, 
the  capital  of  the  island,  which  they  described  as 
much  superior  in  every  way  to  West  End,  but  the 
island  seemed  attractive  to  all  wherever  they  had 
dined  or  strolled,  and  Santa  Cruz  is  considered  to  be 
one  of  the  most  healthful  and  desirable  places  for 
residence  or  resort  in  the  West  Indies. 


VII 
FROM   SABA   TO  ST.   KITT'S 

BOTTOM    ON    TOP SHIP    BUILDING   ON   A    MOUNTAIN A 

PENNSYLVANIA     SCHOOL     SHIP MOUNT     MISERY     AND 

MONKEY    HILL  —  WONDERFUL    FISHES BANYANS    AND 

PALMISTES 

SAILING  from  Santa  Cruz,  we  came  with  a 
straight  course  to  Saba,  St.  Eustatius,  and  St.  Kitt's. 
The  two  first  named  are  lofty  cones,  the  craters  of 
volcanoes  whose  fires  have  gone  out.  Saba  is  sur- 
rounded with  rocky  precipices.  It  rises  sheer  out 
of  the  sea  more  than  a  thousand  feet,  while  the 
top  of  the  cone  is  nearly  three  thousand  feet  high, 
and  in  many  places  quite  inaccessible.  The  land- 
ing is  effected  at  a  rocky  cove  over  breakers  that 
shoot  the  boat  towards  the  stony  beach  with  the 
force  of  a  catapult.  Then  comes  a  climb  up  a  path 
well  named  the  "ladder,"  consisting  of  steps  cut 
in  the  rock,  an  ascent  of  eight  hundred  feet,  so 
steep  that  visitors  must  be  helped  up  with  ropes 
over  parts  of  the  way.  This  difficult  path  leads 
to  the  town  of  "Bottom,"  which  certainly  seems 

51 


52  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

like  a  misnomer  after  such  a  climb,  but  it  occupies 
the  level  surface  of  a  vast  crater  of  an  extinct  vol- 
cano. The  town  is  surrounded  by  hills,  with  one 
opening  to  the  east,  and  another  to  the  west,  through 
which  the  inhabitants  reach  the  sea.  Everything 
has  to  be  transported  from  the  shore  to  the  town 
on  the  heads  of  the  people.  Each  man  carries  one 
hundred  pounds  up  these  steep  cliffs,  taking  his 
load  three  miles  with  a  perpendicular  ascent  of 
thirteen  hundred  feet.  There  is  said  to  be  on  Saba 
the  largest  mine  of  pure,  cool  sulphur  in  this  hem- 
isphere. Its  owner  was  murdered  in  New  York, 
a  few  years  ago,  and  the  mine  has  not  been  worked 
since. 

In  the  quaint  town  of  Bottom  live  two  thousand 
Dutch  people.  They  all  have  fair  skins  and  rosy 
complexions,  with  some  freckles,  but  little  tan, 
while  there  is  a  predominance  of  tow  heads  among 
the  juvenile  population.  The  whites  outnumber  the 
blacks  three  to  one,  and  true  to  their  Dutch  ances- 
try, they  are  sailors  and  boat  builders.  Up  in  this 
mountain  crater  they  build  the  stanchest  fishing 
boats  that  sail  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  when  these 
are  finished,  they  lower  them  down  the  side  of  the 
mountain  with  ropes  and  launch  them  in  the  ocean. 
The  Dutch  have  always  been  famous  for  overcoming 
obstacles.  They  love  to  accomplish  what  seems 


FKOM  SABA  TO  ST.   KITT'S  53 

impossible  ;  and  here  on  Saba,  an  almost  inaccessible 
island,  where  no  timber  grows,  where  there  is  no 
dock  and  no  harbor,  and  not  even  a  smooth  beach, 
they  have  established  a  shipyard  and  from  hence 
have  sent  their  vessels  built  in  a  mountain  through- 
out the  West  Indies. 

St.  Eustatius  is  a  great  volcanic  cone,  whose  lip 
has  been  broken  down  on  the  northern  side,  the 
land  falling  away  into  low  hills  and  meadow  land 
which  makes  up  far  the  greater  part  of  the  island. 
The  island  is  a  Dutch  possession,  but  thinly  inhab- 
ited, and  without  trade  or  importance.  It  was  once 
held  by  Great  Britain  in  the  days  when  Rodney 
brought  all  these  islands  under  English  control,  but 
it  was  inadequately  defended,  and  erelong  fell  an 
easy  prize  to  French  and  Dutch  adventurers.  In 
old  times  its  caves  and  secret  valleys  served  as  hid- 
ing-places for  pirates  and  smugglers,  and  it  is  not 
entirely  free  from  suspicion  at  the  present  day. 
It  is  a  great  resort  also  for  picnic  parties  from  St. 
Kitt's,  and  judging  from  the  condition  in  which  a 
party  returned,  some  of  whose  members  paid  a  visit 
to  our  ship  after  their  day's  outing,  there  must  still 
be  stores  of  spirits  in  the  crater  and  a  readiness  to 
share  them  with  all  comers.  One  of  those  visitors 
was  a  prominent  planter  who  had  just  returned 
from  travelling  in  Europe.  With  his  "attorney," 


54  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CABIBBEES 

as  they  call  the  managers  of  the  estates  here,  and 
other  friends,  he  was  determined  to  appropriate  the 
Madiana  and  make  a  night  of  it  on  board.  The 
captain  had  to  be  called,  before  the  inebriates  could 
be  induced  to  enter  their  boats.  They  went  vowing 
in  thick  and  incoherent  language  that  they  would 
ship  no  sugar  by  a  line  that  denied  them  the  hos- 
pitalities of  its  vessels.  Next  morning,  however, 
they  were  more  sensible  and  apologized  for  their 
rudeness.  Drinking  is  not  done  upon  the  sly  in 
the  West  Indies.  The  first  sign  that  met  my  gaze 
on  landing  at  St.  Thomas  was  "Rum  Shop"  in  a 
conspicuous  place  and  style,  and  the  same  name  is 
given  to  the  many  places  in  the  various  islands 
where  rum  and  other  drinks  are  to  be  had.  We 
saw  abundant  evidence  of  the  effects  of  rum  drink- 
ing, though  these  were  mostly  secondary,  intoxicated 
persons  not  being  numerous,  except  at  Martinique 
during  the  Mardi  Gras  celebrations. 

It  was  early  on  a  February  morning  that  we 
sighted  the  island  of  St.  Kitt's,  and  after  skirting  the 
coast  for  an  hour  or  two,  came  to  anchor  off  Basse 
Terre,  the  principal  town.  There  were  a  number  of 
vessels  moored  in  the  port,  among  them  the  Pennsyl- 
vania School  Ship  Saratoga,  with  about  ninety  boys 
on  board.  They  were  a  fine  set  of  young  fellows, 
under  good  training  for  a  maritime  life.  The  gov- 


FROM   SABA  TO   ST.   KITT'S  55 

eminent  of  the  United  States  is  doing  a  wise  thing 
in  fostering  this  kind  of  education.  These  lads  will 
not  only  supply  officers  for  our  increasing  merchant 
vessels,  but  will  have  that  fundamental  knowledge 
which  will  fit  them  for  emergency  service  in  our 
navy. 

When  the  sun  rose,  we  found  ourselves  in  a  beau- 
tiful curving  basin  of  indigo-colored  water,  which 
was  breaking  into  white  lines  of  surf  upon  a  yellow 
beach.  Along  the  beach,  and  for  a  mile  inland,  lay 
the  picturesque  town  of  Basse  Terre,  its  red  and 
white  roofs  appearing  among  tall  cocoanut  and  cab- 
bage palms,  breadfruit  and  mango  trees.  Beyond 
the  town,  on  gradual  slopes,  were  many  light  green 
sugar  plantations,  each  having  a  tall  chimney  and  a 
group  of  white  stone  buildings  in  the  midst.  Then 
the  mountains  rose,  dark  green  and  purple  in  color ; 
rugged,  and  broken  into  wild  ridges  and  ravines  for 
several  thousand  feet,  till  they  met  the  sky  with  an 
edge  like  a  knife-blade,  while  a  pyramid  of  black 
lava  formed  the  summit  of  Mount  Misery.  Upon 
this  lofty  peak  and  often  upon  its  companion,  called 
Monkey  Hill,  a  mass  of  vaporous  clouds  hangs  nearly 
all  the  time.  In  a  drive  around  the  island  we  once 
saw  this  cloud  cap  lifted  for  half  an  hour,  when  only 

"  Precipitous,  black,  jagged  rocks, 
Forever  shattered  and  the  .same  forever," 


56  CEUISING   AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

stood  revealed.  The  contrast  between  the  emerald 
billows  of  verdure  which  tossed  up  from  the  low- 
lands, and  this  infernal  crest,  was  striking  and  sug- 
gestive. The  lava,  and  sulphur,  and  ashes,  which 
have  been  cast  out  from  the  crater,  and  which  have 
formed  its  slopes,  and  are  still  washed  down  to  the 
ocean  shores,  have  made  the  island  fertile  and  beau- 
tiful. Thus  the  hideous  ogre  is  changed  into  a  fairy 
godmother,  or  in  more  pious  phrase,  our  bountiful 
Creator  is  always  and  everywhere 

"from  seeming  evil,  still  educing  good." 

Every  morning  after  breakfast  we  landed  on  some 
of  the  islands,  to  ride  or  drive  or  visit  or  study  the 
people  and  their  customs.  The  struggles  of  the 
negro  boatmen  for  the  privilege  and  profit  of  row- 
ing us  ashore,  became  in  time  no  more  exciting  than 
the  cries  and  gestures  of  the  cabmen  in  front  of  any 
great  railway  station  in  America;  and  we  chose 
"  Champagne  Charlie  "  or  "  Black-eyed  Susan,"  with 
supreme  indifference,  and  were  rowed  ashore  over 
the  tossing  waves  to  a  long  wharf  and  so  came  to 
the  sandy  beach.  Here  was  a  curious  sight.  Be- 
sides the  lighters  and  gangs  of  longshoremen  who 
were  at  work  upon  hogsheads  of  sugar  and  hogs- 
heads of  molasses  and  barrels  of  rum,  and  the  ragged 
negroes,  with  ruinous  carts  and  raw-boned  horses 


FKOM  SABA  TO   ST.   KITT'S  57 

and  starved  donkeys,  there  were  the  fishing  boats 
which  had  just  arrived  with  the  products  of  their 
nets.  These  were  spread  out  upon  the  sand,  and  a 
more  brilliant  piscatorial  picture  I  never  saw  before, 
but  such  variety  and  beauty  in  a  fish  market  I  saw 
again  and  again  in  the  markets  of  the  Windward 
Islands.  The  fish  were  of  all  sizes  and  shapes,  from  a 
hideous  shark  to  the  graceful  and  beautiful  bonita. 
There  were  the  parrot  fish,  a  gray-blue  and  yellow  fish 
that  looked  like  a  drowned  "  Polly,"  with  watery  eye  ; 
the  gar-fish,  two  feet  long,  as  slender  as  a  lance- 
blade,  clothed  in  gleaming  silver,  and  with  a  long 
black  bill  like  a  bird's,  which  is  set  with  rows  of  fine 
pointed  teeth;  there  was  the  butter  fish,  and  the 
redsnapper,  and  the  gauze-winged  flying  fish,  and 
the  beautiful  angel  fish,  with  its  delicate  arrange- 
ment of  scales  of  pearl  and  silver  and  bronze  and 
gold.  Curious  eels  of  vast  size  lay  coiled  like  ser- 
pents in  boxes,  and  there  were  lobsters  large  enough 
to  take  a  small  darky  in  their  claws  and  walk  off 
with  him,  and  crabs  of  all  sizes  and  colors,  and  forty 
other  strange  and  wonderful  dwellers  in  the  sea. 
Dozens  of  men  and  women,  squatting  or  kneeling 
in  the  sand,  were  chaffering  and  chattering,  and 
handling  and  weighing,  and  selling  and  buying. 
I  saw  nothing  but  copper  coin  used  in  the  purchases, 
and  when  I  offered  half  a  crown  for  change,  in  pay- 


58  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

ment  for  two  breadfruit,  which  cost  a  half-penny, 
there  was  a  sensation  among  the  dealers  equal  to 
that  caused  upon  the  Stock  Exchange  in  New  York, 
by  a  large  and  sudden  exportation  of  gold. 

Some  writers  say,  that  this  chief  town  of  St.  Kitt's 
is  formal,  and  that  its  population  is  not  picturesque, 
but  they  must  have  seen  it  in  rain  or  mist,  or  during 
a  hot  noontide,  when  the  Kittefonians,  as  they  call 
themselves,  were  resting  out  of  sight.  It  is  really 
a  bright  and  busy  town,  with  many  neat  streets  of 
well-built  wooden  houses  on  one-story  stone  founda- 
tions, a  handsome  square  containing  a  wonderful  ban- 
yan tree,  a  number  of  fine  palmistes,  thibet,  and  other 
trees,  and  beds  full  of  gorgeous  hibiscus  flowers  and 
fragrant  mignonette,  and  a  multitude  of  plants  and 
shrubs.  Within  the  enclosures,  which  contain  some 
of  the  best  houses,  are  gardens  full  of  flowers  and 
fruits,  where  one  could  lounge  under  wide-spreading 
branches,  through  which  the  cooling  breath  of  the 
trade  winds  finds  its  way  from  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  long  after  dark.  St.  Kitt's  does  not 
afford  such  varieties  of  color  and  costume  as  are 
found  in  the  French  islands,  but  you  will  see  many 
tall  and  comely  women,  walking  with  erect  figure 
and  attractive  dignity  which  comes  from  carrying 
water-jars  and  other  loads  upon  the  head.  The 
men  are  not  all  black;  some  are  yellow  with 


FROM   SABA  TO   ST.   KITT'S  59 

straight  raven  hair  and  eyes  like  black  beads  which 
indicate  Spanish  or  Portuguese  descent,  but  the 
majority  are  black  as  a  coal,  and  look  blacker  still, 
because  they  are  clad,  if  clad  at  all,  in  garments 
which  were  originally  made  of  white  material. 
They  delight  in  the  sugar-cane,  which  they  gnaw 
constantly  and  vary  with  tobacco  smoking,  and  they 
are  as  fond  of  all  kinds  of  fruit  as  an  Englishman  is 
of  various  sorts  of  meat.  At  St.  Kitt's  we  ate  sapo- 
dillas,  which  have  been  inelegantly  called  "  sweet 
mud " ;  mangoes  which  are  of  a  beautiful  color  and 
contain  a  creamy  substance  of  a  slightly  resinous 
taste  ;  guavas,  small  yellow  globes  full  of  seeds  and 
sugary  pulp ;  soursops,  a  fruit  like  a  large  prickly 
pear,  full  of  a  substance  which  would  be  familiar  to 
lovers  of  ice-cream  soda,  and  great  purple  raspberries 
rather  lacking  in  flavor.  Baked  breadfruit  was 
pronounced  a  valuable  addition  to  those  products 
which  can  be  used  as  vegetables  or  for  the  stock  of 
puddings  and  other  desserts,  while  yams  and  sweet 
potatoes,  and  plantains,  and  bananas,  and  all  sorts  of 
oranges,  were  familiar  to  us,  though  not  in  the  pro- 
fusion and  at  the  small  cost  for  which  they  can  be 
had  in  the  West  Indies. 


VIII 
LIFE   ON  ST.   KITT'S 

THE     ABORIGINES,     THE     SETTLERS     AND     THEIR     WARS 

CHURCHES    OF    ST.  KITT5S A  STORY  OF  DEAF  MUTES 

PHOTOGRAPHS,  COINS,  AND    CURIOS  —  A  DRIVE   AROUND 
THE    ISLAND    AND    A   NEGRO    WEDDING 

AMONG  the  pleasant  acquaintances  formed  at 
St.  Kitt's  was  that  of  Captain  George  Locke  and 
his  amiable  wife.  The  captain  lives  on  the  island 
in  the  service  of  the  Quebec  Steamship  Company, 
and  he  accompanied  our  party  on  the  southern  tour 
through  the  islands  as  far  as  Trinidad.  His  house 
is  in  town,  but  stands  in  a  garden  with  palm  trees 
and  clustering  vines  and  an  ancient  rose  bush  whose 
branches  climb  over  a  long  veranda  and  adorn  it, 
with  great  blossoms  of  the  "cloth  of  gold."  From 
him  we  gathered  much  useful  information  as  we 
sailed  along,  and  some  of  the  facts  about  the  island 
of  St.  Kitt's  will  be  of  interest  before  we  resume 
our  voyage.  The  island  is  oval-shaped,  being  thir- 
teen miles  long,  from  three  to  six  miles  in  width, 
and  contains  an  area  of  about  forty-four  thousand 

60 


LITE  ON   ST.   KITT'S  01 

acres,  three-fourths  of  which  is  under  cultivation. 
The  uncultivated  part  is  mostly  embraced  in  the 
Conarrhee  hills,  the  precipitous  crags  of  Mount 
Misery,  and  a  long  lowland  stretching  out  to  sea 
upon  the  southeast.  The  remainder  of  the  island 
is  well  tilled  and  fertile. 

The  aborigines  were  Carib  Indians,  a  sturdy  and 
warlike  people  who  inhabited  the  island  in  1493, 
when  Columbus  discovered  and  gave  it  his  name. 
Tradition  declares  that  he  was  moved  to  call  it  St. 
Christopher,  because  one  mountain  seemed  to  him 
to  be  bearing  a  smaller  mountain  on  its  shoulder  as 
the  Saint  Christopher  is  represented  in  early  art 
carrying  the  infant  Saviour.  The  English,  when 
the  island  came  into  their  possession,  changed  its 
name  to  St.  Kitt's.  But  the  Carib  name  was 
Liamuiga,  "  the  fertile,"  a  designation  which  is  more 
beautiful  and  appropriate  than  either  of  the  others. 
The  Spanish  discoverers  did  not  settle  here,  and  it 
was  not  until  after  the  Pilgrims  had  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock,  that  fifteen  Englishmen  took  posses- 
sion of  St.  Christopher.  A  party  of  Frenchmen 
came  about  the  same  time,  and  their  common  danger 
from  the  Caribs  led  English  and  French  for  once 
to  join  forces,  massacre  the  natives,  and  divide  their 
conquest.  The  English  settled  at  the  northwestern 
end  called  Sandy  Point,  and  the  French  at  Basse 


62  CRUISING  AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

Terre  on  the  southwest.  But  the  league  thus 
cemented  in  blood  was  soon  broken,  and  English 
and  French  quarrelled  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
till  finally  in  1690  the  English  mustered  three  thou- 
sand armed  men,  and  eleven  men-of-war  and  other 
vessels,  drove  the  French  out  of  the  island,  and 
exiled  them  to  Martinique.  The  island  has  been 
in  English  hands  ever  since,  but  while  Sandy  Point 
is  still  a  small  village,  Basse  Terre  has  about  seven 
thousand  inhabitants  and  contains  the  Government 
House  and  other  public  buildings  and  a  number  of 
churches.  We  attended  service  in  three,  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  opposite  the  Botanic  Garden,  where 
the  congregation  was  almost  entirely  composed  of 
colored  and  negro  people ;  the  Wesleyan  church 
with  a  similar  congregation  but  having  more  of 
the  negro  element,  and  the  Church  of  England, 
whose  services  were  held  in  a  large  and  handsome 
stone  structure  well  filled  with  white  people,  with 
here  and  there  a  colored  person,  but  few  if  any 
negroes.  The  distinction  between  colored  persons 
and  negroes  is  very  marked  and  is  always  insisted 
upon.  Colored  people  may  associate  with  whites 
upon  terms  of  equality,  but  the  negro  still  bears 
the  curse  of  his  lineage  and  is  reckoned  as  belong- 
ing to  a  servile  race. 

The    service    at    the    Church    of    England    was 


LIFE  ON  ST.  KITT'S  63 

conducted  by  a  venerable  archdeacon  who  seemed 
to  be  eccentric.  He  omitted  parts  of  the  service 
without  any  reason,  and  mixed  up  other  parts,  and 
his  enunciation  was  so  strange  as  to  seem  ludi- 
crous ;  he  smiled  derisively  and  wagged  his  head 
to  and  fro  till  some  of  our  ritualists  in  the  party 
became  indignant.  But  our  tendency  to  mirth  or 
anger  was  changed  to  pity  when  we  learned  after 
service  that  the  poor  rector  had  been  paralyzed 
and  was  struggling  bravely  to  retain  his  place  and 
perform  his  duties.  I  recalled  the  story  of  the 
lady  who  had  gone  to  Notre  Dame  in  Paris  to 
hear  a  celebrated  priest.  She  found  one  chapel 
occupied  by  a  congregation  and  presuming  that  she 
was  in  the  right  place,  kneeled  for  a  few  moments 
in  prayer.  On  rising  from  her  knees,  she  saw  that 
the  preacher  was  making  an  address,  but  she  could 
not  hear  a  word.  She  tried  to  listen,  but  no  sound 
reached  her  ear.  Frightened  at  what  she  supposed 
was  a  sudden  deafness  on  her  part,  she  rushed  into 
the  main  body  of  the  church,  where  she  met  a 
friend,  who  seeing  that  something  was  wrong  asked: 
"What  is  the  matter?"  "Thank  God,  I  have 
recovered  my  hearing,"  exclaimed  the  lady;  "I 
feared  that  I  should  be  deaf  for  life."  Upon  hear- 
ing the  story,  her  friend  informed  her  that  she  had 
entered  the  chapel  where  one  of  the  successors  of 


64  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

the  famous  teacher  De  L'Epe*e  was  conducting  a 
service  for  deaf-mutes!  It  is  not  always  safe  to 
draw  conclusions  from  appearances,  especially  when 
travelling  in  foreign  lands. 

One  of  the  objects  of  interest  to  the  modern 
traveller  is  the  photographer.  Next  to  the  pleasure 
of  carrying  one's  own  camera,  and  choosing  the 
point  of  view,  is  that  of  overhauling  the  local  photog- 
grapher's  stock.  At  St.  Kitt's,  Mr.  Lyon,  who  fills 
this  post,  is  a  character.  He  has  lived  long  in  the 
Windward  Islands,  knows  all  their  beauties  and 
salient  points,  is  an  enthusiastic  artist,  and  also  an 
untiring  collector  of  coins  and  curios  and  postage 
stamps.  It  was  a  curious  experience  to  find  in  this 
far-away  island  some  of  the  rarest  Roman  and  Greek 
coins  and  things  that  antiquarians  and  amateurs  long 
to  possess.  Mr.  Lyon  was  proud  to  show  his 
treasures  and  to  share  his  pleasure  with  a  group  of 
eager  travellers.  I  have  nothing  to  say  about  the 
hotel  facilities  and  accommodations  at  Basse  Terre, 
except  that  we  greatly  preferred  the  private  hospi- 
tality of  the  inhabitants  to  any  public  provision,  and 
were  thankful  here  as  elsewhere,  that  there  was  a 
French  chef  on  board  the  Madiana  and  stewards  who 
knew  the  art  of  serving  a  meal. 

In  good  company,  I  twice  drove  about  St.  Kitt's. 
A  fine  road  runs  from  Basse  Terre  towards  the 


LIFE  ON  ST.  KITT'S  65 

southeast,  gradually  ascending  from  the  anchorage, 
till  the  broad  Atlantic  with  its  breakers  on  the  rocks 
and  its  far-extending  billows,  greets  the  eye.  From 
the  crest  of  the  island  the  road  traverses  the  wind- 
ward shore,  sometimes  climbing  a  hill  and  anon 
sweeping  down  almost  to  the  foaming  waves.  Run- 
ning northward  along  the  entire  eastern  side,  a 
superb  ocean  view  meets  the  eye  upon  the  right 
hand,  and  a  mingled  landscape  of  sugar-cane  planta- 
tions, dense  forests,  and  ragged  cliffs  is  upon  the  left. 
We  visited  a  sugar  mill  of  the  simplest  sort  on  one 
of  these  drives.  The  work  was  done  by  negroes, 
oxen,  wind,  and  water,  and  the  sugar  which  was 
turned  out  was  the  cheapest  sort  of  muscovado. 
The  owner  lives  in  Scotland  and  is  perhaps  content 
with  a  very  moderate  profit  upon  his  investment, 
and  in  these  times  he  will  be  lucky  if  he  does  not 
pay  out  more  than  he  receives,  even  with  such  primi- 
tive methods  and  machines. 

On  another  drive  we  witnessed  a  marriage  in  the 
Episcopal  church  of  St.  Paul's,  near  Sandy  Point. 
A  large  population  had  turned  out,  and  the  roads 
were  so  full  that  we  inquired  whether  it  was  a  fete 
day,  and  were  told  that  a  wedding  was  at  hand.  So 
we  made  our  way  to  the  church  and  joined  the  com- 
pany. The  bride  was  tall  and  large-limbed,  and  as 
black  as  night.  She  was  dressed  in  white  lawn,  with 


66  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CABIBBEES 

a  large  necklace,  made  of  great  glass  beads  like  pearls, 
around  her  neck,  and  a  huge  white  satin  bonnet  on 
her  head.  A  medium-sized  negro  girl,  who  also  wore 
a  white  muslin  dress  gayly  bedecked  with  cherry 
ribbons,  was  the  bridesmaid,  and  the  groom  was  a 
tall  and  powerful  black  man,  in  a  gray  suit,  white 
waistcoat,  and  blue  necktie.  After  the  knot  was 
tied,  the  party  were  called  upon  to  sign  the  register. 
This  operation  occupied  nearly  a  quarter  of  an  hour, 
and  was  accompanied  with  much  twisting  of  the 
tongue  into  the  corner  of  the  mouth,  and  difficult 
adjustment  of  the  fingers  so  as  to  bring  fingers  and 
pen  and  page  into  perfect  unison.  At  last  the  signa- 
tures were  made,  the  minister  got  his  fee,  and  the 
happy  pair  were  driven  off  in  a  rickety  coach  with  a 
raw-boned  team  and  a  charioteer  clothed  in  white 
linen,  followed  by  the  cheers  and  blessings  'of  a  wait- 
ing crowd.  They  must  have  gone  to  Basse  Terre, 
thirteen  miles  distant,  upon  their  bridal  tour,  for  this 
is  the  longest  journey  one  can  take  on  the  island. 
The  rector  told  us  that  such  occasions  were  rare 
among  the  negoes,  as  the  women  preferred  an 
arrangement  in  which  they  were  left  free  to  leave 
their  partners,  if  they  proved  to  be  lazy  or  unkind; 
he  said  also,  that  those  who  were  legally  married 
were  treated  with  more  respect  among  their  own 
people  as  well  as  by  others.  At  the  church  and 


LIFE  ON  ST.  KITT'S  67 

along  the  road  we  were  met  by  men  and  girls  with 
missionary  boxes,  who  were  collecting  funds  for 
benevolent  uses,  and  though  some  doubted  whether 
the  shillings  which  they  gave  would  reach  further 
than  the  pockets  of  the  solicitors,  most  of  the  party 
were  charitable  in  their  judgment  as  well  as  in  their 
gifts. 

On  this  drive  we  passed  through  the  villages  of 
Caro  and  St.  Paul's,  and  embarked  again  at  Sandy 
Point,  where  the  steamer  had  come  for  some  bags 
of  sugar.  There  is  no  place  to  lunch  or  lodge  on 
the  island,  outside  of  Basse  Terre,  and  though  the 
planters  are  doubtless  hospitable  enough  to  entertain 
visitors,  the  days  when  any  traveller  felt  free  to 
make  himself  at  home  without  an  invitation,  have 
passed  away.  About  midnight  we  steamed  away 
from  St.  Kitt's  by  the  light  of  the  Southern  Cross, 
which  was  now  becoming  familiar,  and  a  host  of 
other  new  and  brilliant  stars  which  gemmed  the 
firmament. 


IX 
A  REAL   WEST  INDIAN  ISLAND 

BEAUTIES    OF    SEA    AND    SHORE  —  DROWSY    OLD    TOWN 

IN     DAYS     OF     AULD     LANG     SYNE A     FOUNTAIN     OF 

YOUTH BIRTHPLACE    OF     HAMILTON    AND    MARRIAGE 

PLACE   OF   NELSON 

ONE  of  the  most  intelligent  and  agreeable  of 
my  companions  in  our  winter  tour  among  the  Wind- 
ward Islands  was  Mr.  Alfred  M.  Williams.  He  was 
one  of  the  men  who  helped  to  make  the  New  York 
Tribune  in  the  days  of  Horace  Greeley,  and  has  since 
edited  that  able  and  influential  New  England  news- 
paper, the  Providence  Journal.  Mr.  Williams  is  a 
lover  of  literature  and  of  old  books ;  a  poet  and  an 
author,  as  well  as  an  editor.  His  last  book,  is  an 
interesting  collection  of  poetical  folk-lore,  under  the 
title,  "Studies  in  Folk-Song  and  Popular  Poetry." 
My  friend  became  enamored  of  the  beautiful  island 
of  Nevis,  which  he  visited  while  the  Madiana  lay 
at  St.  Kitt's,  and  which  I  visited  with  others  upon 
the  return  voyage.  Mr.  Williams  has  kindly  given 
me  permission  to  print  his  poetic  and  vivacious 

68 


A  HEAL   WEST  INDIAN   ISLAND  69 

descriptions  of  Nevis,  and  I  am  sure  that  my  readers 
will  join  me  in  thanks  for  his  courtesy. 

"  The  most  distinctly  West  Indian  island  which  we 
have  yet  seen,  our  port  of  call  including  St.  Thomas, 
St.  Croix,  and  St.  Kitt's,  is  the  little  island  of  Nevis. 
It  is  not  in  the  regular  routes  of  the  steamers, 
but  is  gained  in  an  hour  and  a  half's  sail  by  a  small 
boat  from  Basse  Terre,  St.  Kitt's.  The  morning  was 
a  delightful  one,  the  sky  full  of  soft,  fleecy  clouds, 
which  now  and  then  darkened  into  mist  and  rain, 
sweeping  in  sheets  of  falling  water  over  the  wine- 
dark  sea,  and  again  lifting  into  white  veils  upon 
the  mountain  tops  and  letting  the  sun  shine  in 
unclouded  lustre  upon  the  sparkling  vegetation  and 
the  sea,  which  was  turned  by  its  caress  to  the 
richest  turquoise  blue.  The  white  gulls  screamed 
with  that  voice  which  is  the  very  accent  of  the 
ocean,  as  they  swept  about  in  what  seemed  like 
a  madness  of  activity,  and  now  and  then  a  greater 
pelican  would  wing  his  heavy  way  above  the  sea. 
The  little  steamer  coasted  along  the  shore  of  St. 
Kitt's,  with  its  high  hills  apparently  covered  with 
unbroken  forest,  and  then  played  and  rolled  through 
the  heavy  waves  that  swept  through  the  channel, 
which  divides  the  island  from  Nevis.  Nevis  is 
dominated  by  a  lofty  hill,  which  looks  down  on 
the  open  roadstead.  This  morning  it  wore  a  light 


70  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

gauze  veil  of  vapor  around  its  summit,  but  down 
its  sides  there  were  patches  of  the  soft  green  verdure 
of  the  cane  fields,  and  the  darker  woods  were  bathed 
in  the  sunlight.  As  we  approached  the  shore  the 
white  foam  of  the  breakers  was  seen  combing  far 
up  on  the  beach,  and  the  heavy  thunder  of  their 
fall  gave  a  strong  symphony  of  ocean  music.  The 
sea  was  so  rough  that  the  steamer  could  not  ap- 
proach the  wharf,  and  the  few  passengers  were 
transferred  to  the  shore  by  the  skilful  hands  of 
the  negro  boatmen. 

"  The  town  of  Charlestown,  which  is  the  capital  of 
Nevis,  is  a  small  hamlet  of  a  few  hundred  in- 
habitants, and  is  hardly  more  than  a  single  street, 
stretching  along  the  open  beach.  On  the  sea  front 
there  is  a  single  line  of  cocoa  palms  lifting  their 
feathered  heads  high  in  air,  and  beneath  them  are 
the  huts  of  the  negro  fishermen,  with  their  boats 
hauled  up  on  the  beach  and  their  nets  drying  in  the 
sun.  The  town  is  made  of  quaint  old  houses  of 
the  ancient  period  of  West  Indian  architecture,  with 
mossy  stone  walls  and  tiled  roofs.  There  are  no 
signs  of  any  business  except  a  few  shops  of  general 
merchandise,  and  an  air  of  gentle  decay  broods  over 
the  whole  place.  There  is  a  little  public  garden 
of  a  few  feet  square,  in  which  roses  and  rho- 
dodendrons were  in  bloom,  and  around  it  were  a 


A   REAL   WEST   INDIAN   ISLAND  71 

few  negro    women  with   cakes   and  vegetables   for 
sale. 

"  The  white  population  were  few,  but  in  amends  the 
negroes  were  many.  Strong  black  wenches  passed 
by  with  heavy  burdens  on  their  heads,  walking  with 
that  firm,  solid,  and  graceful  step  which  comes  from 
the  habit  of  carrying  burdens,  with  only  the  move- 
ment of  the  hips,  the  bust  and  head  remaining 
perfectly  steady  and  upright.  All  were  smiling  and 
happy,  showing  their  white  teeth,  and  ready  to 
respond  with  a  soft  '  good  m-a-a-wning '  in  the 
sweet,  drawling  Creole  accent.  Some  were  carry- 
ing baskets  of  bright-colored  West  Indian  fish  of 
strange  shapes  and  abnormal  aspect,  and  others  great 
burdens  of  vegetables,  boxes  and  loads  of  a  very 
miscellaneous  character.  One  would  not  have  been 
surprised  to  see  a  negress  with  a  kerosene  lamp 
or  a  mirror  on  her  head,  or,  if  there  were  a  square 
piano  on  the  island,  to  see  it  borne  with  a  steady 
step  by  four  of  these  women  caryatides.  The  men 
seemed  to  have  little  to  do,  and  to  be  doing  that 
without  any  energy.  They  idled  on  street  corners 
and  talked  with  a  conversation  heavily  punctuated 
with  guffaws,  or  munched  sugar-cane  in  sleek  and 
shiny  content.  Shoes,  it  is  needless  to  say,  were 
unknown,  and  garments  were  reduced  to  the  sim- 
plest articles  of  necessity.  Altogether,  Charlestown 


72  CRUISING  AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

seemed  sunk  in  a  gentle  and  tranquil  sleep,  its 
slumber  soothed  with  the  tranquil  booming  of  the 
surf,  and  steeping  in  the  warmth  of  the  kindly 
sun. 

"But  Charlestown  was  once  as  wealthy  and  lively 
a  place  for  its  size  as  any  in  the  West  Indies.  In 
the  days  when  a  plantation  in  the  rich  soil  of  Nevis 
was  a  gold  mine,  there  were  wealthy  merchants  who 
dwelt  here,  and  a  rich  and  luxurious  planting 
population  to  lead  a  grand  train  of  luxury  and  ex- 
pense. Besides,  Charlestown  was  the  Saratoga  of 
the  West  Indies,  where  all  the  wealth  and  fashion 
of  the  Windward  islands  gathered  to  spend  the 
season  at  the  famous  sulphur  baths.  About  ten 
minutes'  walk  from  the  town  are  the  ruins  of  an 
immense  stone  hotel,  which  must  have  been  able 
to  accommodate  several  hundred  guests.  It  now 
looks  like  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  castle,  so  heavy 
are  the  crenellated  walls  of  a  massive  gray, 

'  By  the  caper  overrooted,  by  the  gourd  overscored,' 

and  three  magnificent  flights  of  stone  steps  lead 
up  to  the  entrance  hall.  One  can  imagine  what 
bevies  of  dark  and  languid  Creole  'beauties  in 
diaphanous  muslins  have  passed  up  those  steps, 
escorted  by  white-coated  planters,  or  officers  from 
the  ships  and  garrisons  in  more  brilliant  uniforms, 


A   KEAL   WEST   INDIAN   ISLAND  73 

or  danced  and  flirted  in  the  lofty  ball-room,  where 
now  the  clothes  of  the  negro  family  which  keeps  the 
bath  are  hung  to  dry.  Only  the  central  portion 
of  the  building  is  roofed,  the  top  story  of  the  wing 
having  entirely  fallen  in,  and  from  the  walled  ter- 
race to  which  one  climbs  by  a  rickety  stair  there 
is  a  magnificent  view  of  the  town  and  the  gleaming 
plain  of  the  sea,  while  the  soft  and  spicy  breeze 
gently  caresses  the  cheeks.  It  is  a  gentle  ruin, 
embowered  in  luxuriant  vegetation  that  has  kindly 
wrapped  and  softened  its  decay,  and  is  perhaps  more 
suited  to  the  scene  than  when  it  was  alive  with 
hilarious  gayety. 

"  The  bath-house  is  at  the  foot  of  a  gentle  declivity 
in  front  of  the  hotel.  It  is  an  ancient  and  dilapi- 
dated building,  whose  battered  doors  move  reluc- 
tantly on  their  hinges.  To  get  to  the  bath  you 
descend  a  long  flight  of  brick  steps  leading  to  a  pool 
of  limpid  green  water  with  a  gentle  stir  and  flow. 
It  is  dark,  the  only  light  coming  through  cracks  in 
the  shutters,  and  it  is  not  reassuring  to  hear  the 
scuttle  of  a  lizard  or  some  other  beast  as  you  reach 
the  platform.  However,  you  take  heart  of  grace 
and  disrobe.  At  the  first  step  the  water  seems 
unpleasantly  warm,  but  soon  a  gentle  languor  and 
a  sense  of  infinite  deliciousness  comes  over  you. 
You  fairly  wallow  in  delight  as  you  sit  with  the 


74  CRUISING   AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

water  rippling  up  to  your  chin,  and  you  feel  that 
you  could  rest  for  hours  in  absolute  beatitude  as 
the  gentle  warmth  steals  through  your  limbs.  And 
when  you  emerge  you  feel  as  though  you  had 
never  been  clean  before,  so  complete  is  the  sense  of 
the  removal  of  all  impurities.  It  is  like  the  foun- 
tain of  youth  in  its  effects,  and  if  Ponce  de  Leon 
had  found  it  he  would  have  been  assured  temporarily 
at  least  that  the  object  of  his  long  quest  had  been 
attained.  Although  a  strong  sulphur  spring,  there 
is  not  the  slightest  unpleasant  smell,  such  as  some- 
times accompanies  a  mineral  bath,  and  the  waters 
are  of  a  limpid  purity.  Its  effects  are  considered 
very  good  for  rheumatic  complaints  and  stories  of 
wonderful  cures  are  told  of  its  waters.  It  does 
not  seem  impossible  that  in  the  future,  when  the 
attractions  of  the  West  Indies  as  a  winter  resort 
become  better  known,  a  new  hotel  may  arise  near 
the  old  one,  and  that  an  unusual  crowd  of  visitors 
from  the  United  States  may  replace  with  their 
exotic  ways  the  departed  glories  of  the  extinct 
Creole  aristocracy.  There  are  certainly  far  less 
attractive  places  where  fashion  resorts  in  search 
of  health  or  to  dissipate  the  burden  of  its  ennui. 
But  in  that  case  Charlestown  would  cease  to  be 
a  typical  West  Indian  town  and  become  a  mere 
tourist  caravansary  like  Bermuda  or  St.  Augustine, 


A  EEAL   WEST   INDIAN   ISLAND  75 

and  those  who  can  now  delight  in  its  quaint  and 
old-world  flavor  would  not  come  to  be  dinned  and 
dazed  by  American  hotel  life. 

"Nevis  is  not  one  of  the  historical  West  India 
Islands.  It  was  not  fought  for  and  ref ought  for  as 
were  the  other  islands,  when  France,  Spain,  and 
England  struggled  for  the  possession  of  the  pearls 
of  the  Antilles,  nor  was  it  a  place  of  enormous  loots, 
as  was  the  neighboring  island  of  St.  Eustatius  when 
Rodney  swooped  upon  it.  Every  one  will  tell  you 
that  it  was  the  birthplace  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
as  they  will  in  Santa  Cruz  that  the  illustrious  Peter 
Jackson  first  saw  the  light  there.  A  more  famous 
man  than  either  has,  however,  left  the  trace  of  his 
visit  there.  In  the  old  Fig  Tree  church  a  few  miles 
from  town,  the  register  shows  that  Horatio  Nelson, 
then  a  post  captain  in  the  British  navy,  was  there 
married  to  Mrs.  Fanny  Nesbitt,  the  faithful  woman 
whom  he  deserted  for  the  brazen  charms  of  Lady 
Hamilton,  and  of  whom  he  wrote  in  one  of  the 
most  singular  expressions  of  feeling  ever  uttered 
by  man  '  that  if  the  Lord  should  remove  the  obstacle 
to  their  union  '  (meaning  his  own  union  with  his 
mistress),  as  though  heaven  should  interfere  to  sanc- 
tion his  adultery  by  murder.  Meditating  upon  the 
strangeness  of  humanity,  we  may  leave  Nevis  to 
its  sempiternal  calm." 


X 

ANTIGUA   AND  ITS  ANNALS 

MONTSERRAT    AND    ITS    LIME    JUICE    FACTORY PRAYING 

FOR    RAIN A    TALE    OF    ABDUCTION,    JEALOUSY,    AND 

DEATH INDIAN    WARNER TURTLE    SOUP   HERE   AND 

IN    LONDON 

THE  night  air  on  the  Caribbean  Sea  was  mild  and 
refreshing.  When  the  passengers  had  retired,  and 
all  lights  were  out  which  the  rules  required,  I  used 
to  come  out  from  my  stateroom,  and  spreading  a 
steamer  chair  astern  on  the  hurricane  deck,  recline 
and  gaze  for  hours  at  the  heavens,  and  at  the  dark 
masses  of  black  mountain  land  along  which  we 
coasted.  The  West  Indian  night  is  beautiful,  the 
sky  a  deep  violet,  the  atmosphere  clear,  and  while 
multitudes  of  stars  are  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  the 
larger  planets  shine  with  a  refulgence  unknown  in 
the  temperate  zone. 

In  such  a  night  we  rounded  Nevis  and  passed 
Redonda,  which  seemed  little  more  than  a  black  rock, 
and  then  sailed  by  the  lofty  crags  of  Montserrat. 
This  is  a  port  of  call  for  trading  vessels,  which 

76 


ANTIGUA  AND   ITS   ANNALS  77 

receive  large  quantities  of  the  lime  juice  manufact- 
ured here  for  export  to  the  United  States  and  else- 
where. The  trees  are  planted  closely  in  the  orchards 
in  order  to  prevent  vegetation  beneath  from  exhaust- 
ing the  soil.  They  begin  to  bear  after  three  years 
and  continue  to  yield  well  for  half  a  dozen  or  more 
years.  The  limes  are  gathered  as  they  fall  to  the 
ground  by  children  and  squeezed  between  sugar 
rollers.  The  juice  is  then  boiled  till  it  is  thick,  and  if 
intended  for  shipment  is  run  into  hogsheads  of  fifty 
gallons.  The  juice  is  used  as  an  anti-scorbutic  and 
largely  for  making  citric  acid.  It  is  made  at  other 
islands,  notably  at  Dominica ;  but  the  best  quality 
of  juice  known  to  commerce  is  made  on  Montserrat. 
The  industry  was  originally  established  by  Quakers, 
and  it  has  been  of  far  more  use  to  mankind  (and  I 
am  happ}'  to  say,  of  equal  profit  to  the  capitalists) 
than  the  making  of  rum  which  employs  so  many  of 
the  West  India  islanders.  Many  a  scurvy-stricken 
sailor  has  had  reason  to  bless  the  founders  of  this 
beneficent  industry.  Steaming  slowly  through  the 
night,  on  account  of  reefs  and  shoals,  we  cast  anchor 
off  Antigua,  in  an  open  roadstead  just  before  sunrise. 
When  the  sun  rose,  at  once  everything  was  bright 
and  began  to  be  hot.  We  looked  upon  the  light- 
house on  a  reef  near  which  we  had  sailed,  and  at  the 
wreck  of  a  steamer  lying  upon  another  reef  about 


78  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

eight  miles  from  shore,  with  the  sea  dashing  over  her 
decks.  Masts  and  funnel  were  still  standing,  though 
the  vessel  had  been  ashore  for  two  years  and  the 
insurance  money  had  been  paid. 

Antigua  is  long  and  low,  without  high  mountains 
or  striking  features.  There  are  a  few  hills  at  one 
end  and  an  eminence  of  about  fourteen  hundred  feet 
not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  island.  Seen  from  a 
distance  the  island  seemed  rough  and  barren,  but  as 
the  voyager  draws  near,  hills  and  valleys  open  to  his 
view,  and  the  shore  puts  on  an  appearance  of  luxu- 
riant vegetation,  though  destitute  of  trees  except 
around  the  town  of  St.  John's.  This  is  the  capital  of 
the  Windward  Islands,  and  the  governor  resides  here, 
in  an  unpretentious  house  with  a  public  park  near  at 
hand  and  the  beginning  of  a  botanic  garden  beyond. 
The  whole  island  is  under  cultivation  and  all  in 
sugar,  hence  the  present  depression  of  that  staple  is 
severely  felt.  The  want  of  springs  and  an  insuffi- 
cient rainfall  are  the  only  serious  drawbacks  to  the 
fertility  of  Antigua.  A  story  is  told  of  a  man  who 
during  a  period  of  drought  brought  casks  of  water 
from  Montserrat  and  sold  the  precious  liquid  for  so 
high  a  price  that  he  was  induced  to  make  a  second 
excursion  for  water.  Arriving  with  his  cargo,  he 
increased  his  figure  so  much  that  the  inhabitants 
refused  to  buy,  and  instead  united  in  solemn  prayers 


ANTIGUA  AND  ITS   ANNALS  79 

for  rain,  which  being  speedily  answered,  at  once  re- 
warded their  faith  and  punished  his  greed.  The 
moral  of  the  story  is  a  good  one  whether  it  be  fact 
or  fiction.  There  are  but  two  or  three  springs  and 
no  river,  and  the  rainfall  is  less  than  on  the  other 
islands,  yet  on  account  of  its  dryness  and  sandy  soil 
the  health  of  the  island  is  excellent. 

Antigua  lies  twenty-five  miles  northeast  of  Mont- 
serrat  and  forty  miles  north  of  Guadeloupe,  in  lati- 
tude seventeen  degrees  north  and  longitude  sixty- 
two  degrees  west.  It  is  eighteen  miles  long  and 
seventeen  miles  broad,  and  contains  about  sixty  thou- 
sand acres.  When  slavery  was  abolished  in  1834,  the 
population  consisted  of  about  two  thousand  white  and 
colored  people,  and  thirty-three  thousand  negroes. 
Since  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  the  white  popu- 
lation has  steadily  declined  and  the  negroes  have  as 
steadily  increased.  Antigua  has  been  the  scene  of  a 
number  of  insurrections  in  the  days  of  slavery.  The 
island  was  discovered  by  Columbus  on  his  second  voy- 
age, but  as  he  found  it  full  of  Caribs,  and  could  get  no 
good  water,  he  simply  gave  the  island  a  name  after 
the  Church  of  St.  Mary  of  Antigua  at  Seville,  and 
sailed  away.  In  1520  Don  Antonio  Serrano,  of 
Spain,  tried  to  colonize  it,  but  failed ;  a  century  later 
a  French  captain  of  a  privateer  made  a  short  stay ; 
and  in  1632  Sir  Thomas  Warner,  who  is  buried  at 


80  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

Old  Road  on  St.  Kitt's,  and  who  was  a  notable  man 
in  West  Indian  history,  sent  his  son  with  a  British 
army  to  take  and  settle  the  island.  There  was  con- 
tinual fighting  for  years  with  the  Caribs,  who  had 
no  mind  to  have  their  possessions  taken  from  them 
by  Englishmen,  and  in  1640  a  Carib  chief  stole  the 
English  governor's  wife  and  carried  her  away  to 
Dominica. 

This  raid  is  celebrated  in  the  ancient  legend  of 
Ding  a  Ding  Nook,  which  is  briefly  as  follows : 
The  wife  and  child  of  the  governor  of  Antigua, 
who  were  very  dear  to  him,  were  one  day  missing 
from  the  government  house.  Inquiry  from  all  the 
neighboring  planters  revealed  no  traces  of  them. 
Gradually  it  dawned  upon  the  agonized  husband 
and  father  that  his  wife  and  child  had  been  carried 
off  by  the  Carib  Indians.  He  heard  that  some 
Caribs  with  their  chief  had  been  seen  upon  the 
island  and  that  they  had  returned  to  their  homes  in 
Dominica.  With  a  few  friends  he  sailed  down  the 
islands  and  landed  where  the  town  of  Roseau  now 
stands.  There  he  learned  that  his  suspicions  were 
correct,  and  that  the  chief  with  his  captives  had  left 
shortly  before  for  his  lodge  in  the  centre  of  the 
island.  He  followed  after,  and  before  long  found 
spots  of  blood  on  the  path.  Believing  that  these 
spots  indicated  that  his  family  had  been  slain,  the 


ANTIGUA  AND  ITS  ANNALS  81 

pursuers  hurried  forward  and  came  upon  a  party  of 
Indians,  whom  they  slew  after  a  severe  battle.  A 
short  distance  beyond  the  place  of  conflict,  the  gov- 
ernor came  to  an  Indian  lodge,  and  upon  opening 
the  door  his  wife  and  child  fell  into  his  arms.  The 
blood  upon  the  path  had  dropped  from  the  bruised 
feet  of  the  captives  as  they  walked  up  the  rough 
mountain  path. 

Full  of  gratitude  and  happiness,  the  governor 
brought  his  family  back  to  their  Antiguan  home, 
but,  alas,  the  anxiety  and  excitement  through 
which  he  had  passed  disordered  the  mind  of  the 
husband.  He  began  to  be  suspicious  of  his  wife, 
and  imagined  that  she  had  gone  freely  with  the 
Carib  chief.  No  devotion  or  affection  on  her  part 
seemed  able  to  break  the  dark  spell  which  enchained 
him,  and  fierce  jealousy  and  hate  took  the  place  of 
love.  The  efforts  of  friends  to  dissipate  his  fancies 
proved  unavailing  and  it  became  necessary  to  sep- 
arate the  unhappy  man  from  one  whom  he  had  ten- 
derly loved  and  rescued  from  captivity,  lest  he 
should  take  her  life.  Whether  the  cloud  ever  lifted 
and  happiness  returned,  the  legend  does  not  inform 
us. 

Antigua  was  again  captured  by  the  French  in 
1656,  but  was  restored  by  the  treaty  of  Breda  the 
next  year.  There  was  little  peace  for  the  colonists, 


82  CKUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

however,  for  the  Caribs  kept  up  their  raids  till  a 
deliverer  arose  in  the  person  of  Philip  Warner. 
He  was  the  son  of  General  Sir  Thomas  Warner, 
the  English  governor  of  St.  Kitt's.  An  illegitimate 
son  of  Sir  Thomas  by  a  celebrated  Carib  woman, 
who  lived  far  into  this  century,  had  become  a  great 
Carib  chief,  and  ruled  the  Indians  with  despotic 
sway.  Philip  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the 
Carib  raids,  and  taking  a  party  of  men,  he  went  to 
the  place  where  his  brother  lived.  There  was  great 
joy,  says  the  French  historian,  Dampier,  at  their 
meeting.  Philip  made  a  great  feast,  and  invited 
his  brother  and  the  Indians  to  the  merrymaking, 
but  at  a  given  signal,  his  men  fell  upon  the  guests 
and  murdered  Indian  Warner  and  all  his  tribe.  For 
the  murder  of  his  brother,  Philip  was  tried,  but 
triumphantly  acquitted,  had  his  lands  restored,  and 
was  reinstated  as  governor  of  Antigua.  In  1689 
Colonel  Coddington,  a  man  famous  in  West  Indian 
annals,  came  from  Barbados  to  govern  the  island. 
He  was  succeeded  by  Daniel  Parke,  from  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  in  1708.  Parke  was  an  American 
planter,  but  turned  out  a  great  rascal.  In  1736  the 
negroes,  who  had  now  become  numerous,  led  by 
Klaas,  a  powerful  black,  tried  to  blow  up  the  gov- 
ernment house,  but  the  plot  was  revealed  by  an 
Obeah  witch.  Succeeding  years  have  been  marked 


ANTIGUA   AND   ITS   ANNALS  83 

by  hurricanes  and  pestilences,  the  year  1835  having 
been  signalized  by  both  of  these  calamities.  There 
was  a  previous  earthquake  in  1833,  which  gave 
twenty-three  distinct  shocks  which  were  felt  through- 
out the  islands.  The  town  of  St.  John's  has  also 
been  visited  by  many  disastrous  fires,  the  worst  of 
which  was  in  1841,  when  the  loss  reached  a  million 
of  pounds.  In  1825  came  the  first  Anglican  bishop, 
Coleridge,  who  has  written  an  interesting  book 
upon  the  Caribbees.  St.  John's  is  now  the  resi- 
dence of  a  bishop,  and  the  cathedral,  with  its  two 
lofty  yellow  towers,  and  long  nave  full  of  the  tombs 
of  English  residents,  is  a  striking  feature  of  the  town 
as  it  is  seen  from  the  sea. 

The  island,  though  destitute  of  imposing  char- 
acteristics, is  yet  a  beautiful  member  of  the  group. 
It  is  marked  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  tropics. 
Overhead  is  the  clear  blue  of  the  sky.  The  crystal 
waters  are  sparkling  in  the  beams  of  the  blazing 
sun.  Green  hills  descend  to  the  very  shore.  Here 
and  there  a  calm  and  silent  glen  opens  to  the 
sight.  Numerous  creeks  run  far  inland,  and  appear 
amid  the  surrounding  verdure  like  chains  of  silver. 
A  few  negro  huts  are  seen  nestling  at  intervals 
among  clumps  of  trees.  At  Grace  Bay  the  land 
looks  sprinkled  with  gold  from  the  flowers  of  the 
aloe  which  grows  there  in  profusion. 


84  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

In  the  midst  of  such  natural  beauties  the  higher 
classes  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  islands  while 
away  the  hours  of  daylight  until  the  sun  reaches 
the  west  and  throws  his  rich  beams  on  every  cloud 

which 

"Throngs  to  pavilion  upon  him." 

Suddenly  he  appears  to  touch  the  bosom  of  the 
flaming  waves,  and  then,  sending  forth  one  vivid 
line  of  glory,  he  sinks  to  rest  upon  his  golden 
couch.  I  wish  that  I  could  write  with  truth  as 
well  as  poetry, 

"  Now  comes  still  evening  on ;  " 

but  no  sooner  does  the  sun  go  down,  than  sounds 
of  all  sorts  fill  the  air.  Negro  men  and  women 
and  children  gather  in  groups  and  begin  to  gab- 
ble, crickets  and  frogs  raise  their  shrill  pipes, 
mosquitoes  hum,  and  cockroaches  scrape  the  floors 
or  crawl  in  myriads  over  the  tables,  while  in 
country  places  land  crabs  clatter  about,  owls  hoot, 
and  multitudes  of  insects  make  unmusical  noises. 
We  were  fortunate  in  sleeping  upon  a  steamer 
most  of  our  nights,  and,  being  anchored  some  dis- 
tance from  shore,  enjoyed  a  peace  which  the  lands- 
man could  not  secure. 

In  advance  of  our  arrival  we  had  sent  word  to 
have  a  turtle  dinner  prepared,  and  as  this  delicacy 


ANTIGUA   AND  ITS   ANNALS  85 

is  to  be  had  in  great  quantity,  visions  of  rich 
green  fat,  and  white  meat,  and  yellow  eggs,  filled 
the  imaginations  of  the  epicureans  of  the  party. 
But  such  dreams  were  destined  to  a  rude  awaking. 
Our  restaurateur  was  overwhelmed  by  the  size  of 
the  order  which  he  received,  and  no  one  who  dined 
that  day  at  Antigua  desired  to  repeat  the  expe- 
rience, even  for  the  fun  of  seeing  a  mob  of  negro 
men  and  women  scramble  after  dinner  in  the 
street  for  bits  of  silver  which  were  lavishly  scat- 
tered among  them  like  corn  among  a  flock  of 
chickens.  The  stately  turtle  soup  of  the  lord- 
mayor  of  London,  which  I  have  eaten  on  several 
occasions,  is  more  to  my  taste,  even  though  it  be 
suspected  of  relationship  to  a  calf's  head,  than  all 
the  real  turtle  cooked  in  this  far-off  West  Indian 
island. 

When  we  had  eaten  the  banquet  and  seen  the 
sights,  we  bade  farewell  to  the  town  of  St.  John's, 
its  streets  of  white  wooden  houses  with  green 
blinds,  its  grand  cathedral  and  miniature  harbor, 
and  sailed  due  south  towards  a  mighty  mass  of 
dark  green  land,  over  which  clouds  were  continu- 
ally rolling  and  tossing,  half  revealing,  half  conceal- 
ing the  peaks  and  ridges  of  what  we  soon  learned 
to  know  as  Guadeloupe,  one  of  the  largest  and 
strangest  of  the  islands  of  the  archipelago. 


XI 

WITCHCRAFT  AND   SUPERSTITION 

IGNORANCE    AND    CREDULITY    OF    THE    NEGROES  —  OBEAH, 

WHAT    IT    IS    AND    HOW   PRACTISED SIMILAR    BELIEFS 

IN     OTHER      NATIONS — AN  ANSI,     JUMBEE    AND     DUPPT 
STORIES SPIRITUALISM    AND    HYPNOTISM 

No  account  of  a  tour  in  the  Caribbees  would  be 
complete  without  reference  to  the  superstitions  of 
the  negroes.  One  cannot  talk  with  them,  or  visit 
their  cabins,  or  observe  their  habits,  without  recog- 
nizing the  fact  that  they  are  like  children  in  their  be- 
lief in  ghosts  and  devils  and  evil  influences.  These 
have  led  them  to  frightful  practices  in  the  past,  and 
I  was  credibly  informed,  that  while  there  is  apparent 
advance  in  knowledge  and  civilization,  there  are 
places  in  the  islands  where  dense  superstition  and 
barbarous  customs  still  prevail.  Among  these  super- 
stitions none  has  been  more  potent  than  the 
"Obeah,"  concerning  which  I  shall  give  some  facts, 
derived  chiefly  from  persons  who  from  residence  in 
the  West  Indies  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  the 
negroes,  have  had  abundant  opportunities  of  observa- 

86 


A   WEST   INDIAN    TYPE 


•WITCHCRAFT   AND   SUPERSTITION  87 

tion.  Among  the  writers  who  have  treated  the 
subject  Pere  Labat  has  been  most  frequently  referred 
to,  but  more  than  two  centuries  have  passed  since 
his  interesting  work  was  published.  It  is  still  an 
important  aid  to  the  tourist  among  the  Caribbees, 
so  far  as  general  topography,  natural  history,  and 
phenomena  are  concerned.  But  the  state  of  society, 
and  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people,  are  much 
changed  from  what  they  were  in  his  days.  Carmi- 
chael's  "  Domestic  Manners  of  the  People  of  the  West 
Indies  ";  "  West  Indian  Folk-lore,"  by  Mary  P.  Milne ; 
Hesketh  J.  Bell's  book  upon  "  Obeah,"  as  well  as  the 
books  of  Mr.  F.  H.  Ober,  to  whom  I  have  more  than 
once  referred,  contain  chapters  upon  these  subjects, 
and  I  have  availed  myself  of  all  of  them. 

The  term  "  Obeah"  is  most  probably  derived  from 
"Obi,"  a  word  used  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa  to 
denote  witchcraft,  sorcery,  and  fetichism  in  general. 
The  etymology  of  Obi  has  been  traced  to  a  very 
antique  source,  stretching  far  back  into  Egyptian 
mythology.  A  serpent  in  the  Egyptian  language 
was  called  "Ob"  or  "Aub."  "Obion"is  still  the 
Egyptian  name  for  a  serpent.  Moses,  in  the  name 
of  God,  forbade  the  Israelites  even  to  inquire  of 
the  demon  "  Ob,"  which  is  translated  in  our  Bible, 
charmer  or  wizard,  divinator  or  sorcerer.  The  witch 
of  Endor  is  called  "  Oub  "  or  "  Ob,"  translated  Python- 


88  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

issa,  and  "  Oubois  "  was  the  name  of  the  basilisk,  or 
royal  serpent,  emblem  of  the  sun  and  an  ancient 
oracular  deity  of  Egypt. 

Hesketh  Bell,  writing  from  St.  Vincent,  says  that 
"the  Obeah  of  the  negro  is  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  a  belief  in  witchcraft,  and  this  operates  upon 
them  to  such  a  degree  as  not  unfrequently  to  pro- 
duce death.  There  are  few  Indian  estates  upon 
which  there  is  not  one  or  more  Obeah  men  or  women ; 
the  negroes  know  who  they  are,  but  it  is  difficult  for 
white  people  to  find  them  out.  The  way  they  pro- 
ceed is  this :  A  negro  takes  a  dislike  to  a  negro  or 
negroes,  either  upon  the  same  estate  with  himself 
or  upon  another ;  he  goes  to  the  Obeah  woman 
and  tells  her  that  he  will  give  money  or  something 
else  as  payment  if  she  will  Obeah  such  and  such 
persons.  The  Obeah  woman  then  goes  to  those 
people,  and  tells  them  she  has  Obeahed  them.  Slow 
poison  is  at  times  secretly  administered,  but  in  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  cases  the  mind  only  is 
affected;  the  imagination  becomes  more  and  more 
alarmed,  the  spirits  sink,  lassitude  and  loss  of  appetite 
ensue,  and  death  ends  the  drama. 

"  The  practice  of  Obeah  is  too  common  among  the 
negroes,  and  very  fatal  to  them.  I  know  of  an 
instance  where  fifteen  people,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months,  died  of  no  other  cause.  It  is  vain  to 


WITCHCRAFT   AND   SUPERSTITION  89 

reason  with  them.  'Missis,  I'm  Obeahed,  I  know 
I'll  go  dead,'  is  all  you  can  obtain  from  them. 
Negroes  so  firmly  believe  this  that  they  have  bottles 
hung  round  and  about  their  houses,  and  in  their 
grounds,  full  of  some  sort  of  infusion  which  they 
prepare  to  prevent  the  Obeah  from  affecting  them; 
they  often  wear  an  armlet,  or  some  such  thing,  for 
the  same  purpose. 

"  The  practice  of  Obeah  is  death  by  the  laws  of  St. 
Vincent,  but  there  is  no  possibility  of  conviction. 
Negroes  believe  that  spirits  occasionally  appear,  and 
that  devils,  or,  as  they  call  them,  'Jumbees,'  are 
frequently  to  be  seen ;  nay,  that  Jumbee  sometimes 
compels  them  to  go  away  with  him ;  but  I  rather 
think  they  make  a  convenience  of  Jumbee  upon  such 
occasions.  The  name  is  different,  but  the  truth  is 
negroes  believe  in  witchcraft ;  and  so  do  many  of  the 
lower  orders  in  Britain.  I  have  seen  country  ser- 
vants in  the  county  of  Mid  Lothian  who  were  as 
firm  believers  in  it  as  any  negro  can  be.  I  have  seen 
a  dairymaid  churn  with  the  dairy  locked  for  fear  of  a 
man  coming  in  whose  eye  she  declared  would  spoil 
the  butter.  I  have  often  reasoned  with  this  woman, 
who  was  in  other  respects  a  shrewd,  sensible  female 
for  her  station  in  life,  and  she  never  ceased  to  tell 
me  that  if  I  disbelieved  in  witches  I  must  disbelieve 
the  Bible ;  there  was  no  arguing  with  her,  for  in  her 


90  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

opinion  it  was  sacred  ground.  I  have  also  often 
heard  the  lower  classes  in  Scotland  use  the  same 
argument.  Not  long  ago  a  respectable  man  in  one 
of  the  western  counties  of  England  sent  to  borrow  a 
churn  from  a  lady  of  my  acquaintance,  because,  as  he 
alleged,  'the  devil  had  got  into  his  churn  and  he 
could  not  make  butter  in  it.'  " 

Half  a  century  since,  the  practice  of  Obeah  caused 
so  much  loss  of  slave  property  by  poisoning  that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  enact  the  most  stringent 
laws  for  its  repression,  and  an  ordinance  was  passed 
in  all  the  West  Indian  colonies,  imposing  heavy 
penalties  on  any  person  found  guilty  of  dealing 
in  Obeah.  Unfortunately,  through  the  knowledge 
possessed  by  some  of  the  old  negroes  of  numerous 
bushes  and  plants,  unknown  to  medicine,  but  found 
in  every  tropical  wood,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  many 
deaths  might  still  be  traced  to  the  agency  of  these 
Obeah  men.  The  secret  and  insidious  manner  in 
which  this  crime  is  generally  perpetrated  makes 
detection  exceedingly  difficult.  A  Roman  Catholic 
priest,  who  was  asked  to  give  his  opinion  upon  the 
subject,  replied :  "  Ah,  my  dear  sir,  I  can't  remember 
half  I  hear  and  notice  on  these  ever-present  super- 
stitions of  the  people,  but  I  assure  you  that  it  is 
one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  I  meet  with  in  my 
work  among  my  parishioners;  these  foolish  but  so 


WITCHCRAFT   AND   SUPERSTITION  91 

deeply  rooted  beliefs  of  theirs  in  the  power  of 
Obeah  and  witchcraft  meet  me  at  every  turn,  and 
after  talking  hours  and  trying  to  prove  to  them 
how  ridiculous  and  senseless  all  these  ideas  are,  I 
only  obtain  a  seeming  acquiescence  and  make  no 
lasting  impression.  I  have  tried  everything  to  com- 
bat the  baneful  influence,  and  endeavored  to  make 
them  ashamed  of  their  ignorance  and  credulity, 
but  with  precious  little  effect.  I  have  even  adopted 
the  Japanese  custom  of  punishing  a  whole  street 
for  the  misdeeds  of  one  criminal  living  in  it,  by 
refusing  the  sacraments  for  a  time  to  a  whole  family, 
if  a  member  of  it  be  known  to  be  dabbling  in  Obeah 
all  to  the  same  purpose." 

"  West  Indian  Folk-lore  "  contains  many  similar 
instances  of  the  influence  of  Obeah  upon  the 
negroes.  It  has  also  a  collection  of  fairy  tales  and 
silly  stories  with  which  the  people  amused  each 
other,  from  which  I  extract  an  example :  "  In  the 
West  Indies  if  you  desire  to  be  told  a  fairy  tale  or 
anything  of  the  kind  you  must  ask  for  'Anansi' 
stories.  In  the  old  days  these  were  usually  told 
at  local  gatherings  of  the  people ;  such  as  wed- 
dings or  funerals,  the  latter  being  equal  occasions 
for  festivity  with  the  former.  The  old  women  keep 
the  children  quiet  with  these  tales,  and  the  small, 
white  '  buccra,'  sitting  by  its  nurse,  will  have  a  flood 


92  CRtJISlHG  AMOttG  THE  CAKIfcBEES 

of  folk-lore  wasted  on  its  entertainment,  which  an 
elder  interested  in  the  same  will  vainly  endeavor 
to  hear,  the  narrator  repeating:  'Dat  foolishness; 
wonder  missus  car  to  har  dat.'  Anansi  stories, 
which  are  those  usually  told  to  children,  owe  their 
name  to  a  mysterious  personage  who  plays  the 
principal  part  in  them  —  a  hairy,  old  man  with 
long  nails,  very  ugly,  called  brother  or  Father 
Anansi.  In  some  way  Anansi  bears  a  resemblance 
to  the  Scandinavian  '  Troll '  or  '  Scrattle,'  and 
the  'Lubber  fiend'  of  the  English  north  country; 
and  his  character  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  German 
'  Reinecke  Fuchs,'  or  the  Japanese  '  Kitsuri  Fox,' 
thievish  and  cunning.  Here  is  one  of  the  Anansi 
stories :  Anansi  and  Baboon  were  disputing  one 
day  which  was  fattest;  Anansi  said  he  was  sure  he 
was  fat,  but  Baboon  declared  he  was  fatter.  Then 
Anansi  proposed  they  should  prove  it;  so  they 
made  a  fire  and  agreed  that  they  should  hang  up  be- 
fore it  and  see  which  would  drop  most  fat.  Baboon 
hung  up  Anansi  first,  but  no  fat  dropped.  Then 
Anansi  hung  up  Baboon,  and  very  soon  the  fat 
began  to  drop,  which  smelt  so  good  that  Anansi 
cut  a  slice  of  Baboon  and  said :  '  O  brother  Baboon, 
you  fat  for  true.'  But  Baboon  didn't  speak.  So 
Anansi  said:  'Well,  speak  or  not  speak,  I'll  eat 
you  every  bit  to-day,'  which  he  really  did.  But 


WITCHCRAFT   AND   SUPERSTITION  93 

when  he  had  eaten  up  all  Baboon,  the  bits  joined 
together  in  his  stomach,  and  began  to  pull  him 
about  so  much  that  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  a  doctor. 
The  doctor  told  him  not  to  eat  anything  for  some 
days,  then  he  was  to  get  a  ripe  banana  and  hold 
it  to  his  mouth.  When  Baboon,  who  would  be 
hungry,  smelt  the  banana,  he  would  be  sure  to  run 
up  to  eat  it,  and  so  he  would  run  out  of  his  mouth. 
So  Anansi  starved  himself  and  got  the  banana,  and 
did  as  the  doctor  told  him,  but  when  he  put  the 
banana  to  his  mouth  he  was  so  hungry  he  couldn't 
help  eating  it.  So  he  didn't  get  rid  of  Baboon, 
which  went  on  pulling  him,  until  he  went  back  to 
the  doctor,  who  took  a  banana  and  held  it  to  Anansi's 
mouth,  and  very  soon  the  baboon  jumped  up  to 
catch  it,  and  ran  out  of  his  mouth,  and  Anansi 
was  glad  to  get  rid  of  him.  And  baboons  to  this 
very  day  like  bananas.  Besides  Anansi  stories 
there  are  also  Duppy  or  Jumbee  stories  which  relate 
solely  to  ghosts,  and  resemble  what  the  French 
call  'revenants,'  the  Germans  4wald  gheist,'  and 
are  also  similar  to  the  Irish  '  fetch.' " 

The  want  of  grace  and  description  about  the  folk- 
tales seems  to  be  less  striking  wherever  the  French- 
man or  Spaniard  has  had  dominion  ;  in  Martinique, 
for  instance,  there  seems  to  be  more  romance  and 
graceful  sentiment  about  the  negro  and  Creole  super- 


94  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CAKIBBEES 

stitions  than  in  the  English  islands,  the  ghost  stories 
are  more  weird  and  powerful,  and  the  expressions 
used  are  happier  and  more  refined.  Perhaps  the 
grace  and  esprit  of  the  old  French  settlers  have 
left  an  impression  upon  their  descendants. 

In  Martinique  prevails  a  curious  superstition, 
that  of  the  "diablesse,"  a  beautiful  negress  with 
piercing  eyes,  who  passes  silently  through  some 
lonely  cane-piece  where  men  and  women  are  at 
work,  and  whatever  man  she  smiles  upon  must  arise 
sooner  or  later  and  follow  her  —  to  death,  since  he 
is  never  seen  again.  This  superstition  is  apparently 
akin  to  that  prevailing  among  the  Russian  peasants, 
of  the  Baba  Yagas,  or  witch  woman,  whose  look 
wiles  a  man  away  to  death. 

People  who  are  out  of  doors  very  early  in  the 
morning  in  tropical  latitudes,  often  feel  in  the  midst 
of  the  cool  freshness,  sudden  breaths  of  hot  air  — 
a  curious  phenomenon.  This  gives  rise  to  another 
superstition,  and  the  negroes  say  they  are  passing 
by  "  Jumbee's  fireplace,"  where  he  made  his  fire  over 
night.  The  beautiful  silk  cotton  tree  is  supposed 
to  be  Jumbee's  favorite  haunt,  and  a  negro  is  loth  to 
cut  down  one  of  these  trees,  certain  that  some  evil 
will  overtake  him  after  so  doing.  For  this  a  lover 
of  nature  is  inclined  to  bless  Jumbee,  as  the  means 
of  saving  many  of  those  grand  kings  of  the  forest. 


WITCHCRAFT   AND    SUPERSTITION  95 

The  advance  of  education  will  doubtless  do  much 
to  dispel  these  silly  and  dangerous  superstitions, 
but  when  we  realize  how  many  people  are  under 
the  control  of  spiritualists,  and  Christian  scientists, 
and  faith  cures,  in  the  most  enlightened  and  Chris- 
tian communities,  it  does  not  seem  strange  that  races 
that  have  -only  been  emancipated  from  bondage  for 
a  few  generations,  and  from  heathenism  for  perhaps 
a  few  centuries,  should  be  thus  blinded  and  deluded. 


XII 
GUADELOUPE 

UP   SALT    RIVER HURRICANE    WORK A    GREAT    STEAM- 
ING   VOLCANO COFFEE     PLANTATIONS     AND     CULTURE 

BRILLIANT    MARKET   SCENE EXTRACTS    FROM    PERE 

LABAT 

IT  was  evening  when  we  saw  the  gleam  of  the 
lighthouse  at  Point  a  Pitre  on  Guadeloupe,  and  let 
go  the  anchor  in  the  harbor.  The  electric  lights 
still  shone  in  the  town  and  one  or  two  boats  came 
out  to  the  steamer,  but  even  the  quartette  of  young 
men,  who  were  usually  ready  for  an  excursion 
ashore  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  evening,  were 
content  to  wait  till  morning.  Some  of  the  party 
were  polishing  up  their  French  in  the  cabin;  for 
Guadeloupe  and  Martinique  inhabitants  speak  only 
the  French  language,  though  their  speech  is  not 
the  dialect  which  Americans  call  "Parisian."  The 
negroes  throughout  the  islands  speak  a  French  patois 
which  is  hardly  intelligible  to  other  people,  and  is 
a  meaningless  jargon  to  foreigners.  Morning  re- 
vealed to  us  a  beautiful  landlocked  bay  with  a 

06 


GUADELOUPE  97 

thoroughly  tropical  aspect.  Mangroves  lined  the 
banks  of  the  river,  cocoanut  and  other  palms  over- 
hung the  town  and  grew  in  groves  beyond  its  limits, 
tall  breadfruit  trees  with  rounded  tops  and  dark  foli- 
age diversified  the  landscape,  and  a  nearer  view  re- 
vealed orange  orchards,  and  gardens  full  of  hibiscus, 
begonias,  and  roses.  Upon  the  right  was  an  immense 
group  of  sugar  factories,  the  Usines  Centrales,  where 
the  sugar-canes  are  brought  by  the  planters  and  sold 
to  be  manufactured  into  sugar.  Huge  smokestacks 
were  vomiting  out  black  smoke,  and  the  industry 
was  in  full  blast,  as  we  landed  at  a  stone  pier  from 
a  little  naphtha  launch  which  plies  in  the  harbor. 

The  town  of  Point  a  Pitre  lies  on  the  south- 
western side  of  the  island,  at  the  southern  mouth 
of  a  river  called  Salee,  or  Salt  River.  It  has  an 
excellent  harbor  protected  on  every  side.  The 
town  is  new,  having  been  rebuilt  not  many  years 
ago,  after  a  fire  which  laid  the  old  town  in  ashes. 
It  had  previously  been  shaken  down  by  an  earth- 
quake, and  blown  to  pieces  by  a  hurricane.  The 
first  town  was  built  of  stone,  which  the  earthquake 
tumbled  into  ruins ;  the  second  was  built  of  wood 
to  prevent  damage  from  this  source,  but  a  hurri- 
cane blew  the  frail  structures  away;  and  fire 
burned  up  the  next  town.  The  present  town  is  laid 
out  upon  broad,  straight  streets,  with  several  public 


98  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

squares,  and  many  fine  buildings.  It  is  said  to  be 
built  of  iron-framed  louses  filled  in  with  brick,  to 
guard  against  the  varied  attacks  from  the  elements 
which  have  proved  so  destructive  in  the  past. 

Guadeloupe,  of  which  island  Point  a  Pitre  is  one 
of  the  chief  towns,  is  the  largest  of  the  West  India 
Islands  which  belong  to  France,  and  has  an  impor- 
tant commerce.  It  lies  in  latitude  fifteen  degrees 
north,  and  longitude  sixty-one  degrees  west,  embraces 
with  its  outlying  islands  six  hundred  and  twenty-five 
square  miles,  and  has  a  population  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls,  three-quarters  of 
whom  are  blacks.  The  main  island  is  divided  by 
Salt  River,  which  is  navigable  for  small  boats,  but  is 
largely  swamp.  Guadeloupe  proper  lies  on  the  west 
and  Grande  Terre  on  the  east  of  the  river,  and  each 
division  is  about  thirty-five  miles  long;  though 
Guadeloupe  is  a  third  wider  than  Grande  Terre, 
being  eighteen  miles  across  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
contains  the  mountain  range,  whose  summit  is  the 
steaming  volcano,  Soufridre.  Grande  Terre  is  low, 
flat,  and  marshy  and  is  not  composed  of  lava  but  of 
coral  and  marine  shells ;  Basse  Terre  is  a  vast  mass 
of  volcanic  de'bris  rising  five  thousand  feet  into  the 
air,  clothed  with-  majestic  primeval  forests  whose 
trees  are  of  enormous  proportions.  We  came  to  the 
southern  end  of  the  island  upon  our  return  trip  and 


GUADELOUPE  99 

did  not  land,  but  we  lay  to  for  an  hour  to  take  the 
mail,  and  consequently  could  reconnoitre  through 
the  field-glass.  This  view  revealed  deep  ravines 
whose  sides  were  covered  with  dense  forests  out  of 
which  towered  groves  of  vast  magnitude,  and  now 
and  then  as  the  cloud-caps  lifted,  we  caught  sight  of 
the  awful  blackness  of  the  Soufriere,  the  crater 
formed  of  a  dozen  peaks  like  giant  teeth  of  the  jaws 
of  hell.  Steam  and  sulphurous  smoke  poured  forth 
from  the  abyss,  and  it  was  a  relief  when  the  pearly 
vapors  once  more  shrouded  the  horrid  place  from 
mortal  view.  This  is  no  imaginary  picture  of  a  vol- 
cano. In  1797  the  Soufriere  hurled  forth  dense 
masses  of  ashes  and  pumice  and  sulphur  smoke ;  in 
1843  its  convulsions  shook  the  island  and  tumbled 
its  towns  into  ruins ;  and  before  and  since  that  date, 
smoke  by  day  and  flames  by  night  have  shown  its 
fiery  temper  and  unquenched  power  for  evil,  yet  the 
French  people  increase,  prosper,  and  are  merry  here. 
There  are  numerous  coffee  plantations  on  Guade- 
loupe, and  also  on  Dominica.  At  the  latter  island  I 
met  a  young  Englishman,  who  had  a  small  coffee 
plantation,  which  gave  him  a  comfortable  support 
and  a  visit  home  once  in  five  years.  The  coffee 
plants  are  usually  raised  from  seeds  sown  in  beds, 
upon  the  mountains,  where  the  thermometer  varies 
from  fifty-five  degrees  Fahrenheit  in  winter,  to 


100  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

eighty  degrees  in  the  heat  of  summer.  When  they 
are  two  years  old,  the  small  shoots  are  set  out 
in  rows  six  feet  apart  each  way.  In  three  years 
they  begin  to  yield;  they  are  increasingly  fruit- 
ful for  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  and  live  for  a  century. 
It  was  February  when  we  were  at  Guadeloupe,  and 
the  trees  were  in  bloom;  the  fruit  ripens  from 
August  to  December,  but  blooms  and  green  fruit  and 
the  ripened  berry  may  be  sometimes  seen  at  once 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  year.  The  berry  is  red, 
of  the  size  and  color  of  a  cherry,  and  coffee  is  made 
from  the  kernel  or  seed,  which  is  divided  into  two 
hemispheres.  This  seed  goes  through  a  variety  of 
processes  before  it  becomes  the  coffee  of  commerce, 
and  is  prepared  for  use  in  the  delicious  beverage 
which  is  known  all  over  the  world.  Most  of  the 
coffee  of  the  French  islands  goes  naturally  to  France, 
but  it  is  not  as  cheap  as  the  South  American  product, 
and  its  cultivation  is  encouraged  by  government 
bounties.  The  coffee  and  sugar  interests  do  not  con- 
flict, for  the  former  occupies  the  highland  and  the 
latter  the  lowland. 

The  government  of  this  French  island  is  vested  in 
a  governor  and  his  council,  and  a  general  council  of 
thirty  members.  Basse  Terre  is  the  capital,  and  the 
jurisdiction  embraces  the  islands  Guadeloupe,  Marie 
Galante,  De*sirade,  Les  Saintes,  and  St.  Martin. 


GUADELOUPE  101 

Columbus  discovered  these  islands  in  1493  —  naming 
the  second  one  after  one  of  his  ships.  France  took 
possession  of  them  in  1635,  and  after  many  changes 
of  owners,  in  1816  they  became  her  permanent 
possession,  and  her  policy  has  made  them  prosper- 
ous and  productive,  in  spite  of  earthquakes  and  hur- 
ricanes. Slavery,  which  had  been  abolished  in  the 
English  islands  in  1834,  continued  in  Guadeloupe 
till  1848. 

Landing  at  Point  a  Pitre  from  the  naphtha  launch 
at  a  pier  near  the  fish  market,  our  company  dispersed 
through  the  town,  some  seeking  the  sugar  mills,  and 
others  the  market  and  museum.  The  market  is  held 
in  a  covered  building  in  one  of  the  principal  squares, 
and  presented  a  novel  and  exciting  scene.  Several 
hundred  women  —  black,  yellow,  quadroon,  and  octo- 
roon, with  very  little  negro  blood  and  hardly  any 
negro  features  —  were  chattering  and  chaffering, 
screaming  and  gesticulating  like  monkeys,  over  little 
piles  of  fruit  and  vegetables  and  roots  and  meats  and 
bouquets  of  flowers.  They  wore  loose  and  long  flow- 
ing gowns  of  gaudy  and  brilliant  prints,  which  they 
held  half-way  up  to  their  waists  as  they  walked  in 
the  market-place.  On  their  heads  were  turbans 
which  equalled  anything  in  Damascus  or  Assouan, 
formed  of  Madras  handkerchiefs,  rolled  and  twisted 
about  the  head  in  many  folds  with  one  end  sticking 


102  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

up  at  the  top.  All  the  women  wore  jewels,  neck- 
laces of  huge  beads,  great  hoops  and  cylinders  of 
gold  in  their  ears,  bracelets  and  rings  without  num- 
ber. The  passion  of  the  Frenchwoman  and  of  the 
blacks  for  the  display  of  jewelry  and  gay  clothing 
seems  to  have  united  in  this  race  of  islanders, 
and  their  appearance  was  gay  and  festive  in  the 
extreme. 

The  women  of  Guadeloupe  are  good-looking,  and 
we  saw  a  few  Creole  girls  who  were  beautiful.  They 
had  pure  and  fine  complexions,  brown  and  pale  with 
a  rose  tint  on  the  cheeks,  and  a  thin  skin  through 
which  the  blue  veins  in  the  forehead  could  be  traced. 
Their  hair  fell  in  glossy  ringlets ;  dark  and  lustrous 
eyes  half  hid  by  long  drooping  eyelashes,  and  pen- 
cilled brows,  relieved  the  prevailing  color  of  the  face. 
Pearly  teeth  gleamed  through  thin  coral  lips,  and 
when  pleased  or  excited  the  whole  face  seemed  to 
shine  as  water  gleams  in  the  sunlight.  They  were 
petite  as  compared  with  the  large-limbed  and  broad- 
shouldered  black  women,  with  small  and  beautifully 
shaped  hands  and  feet,  and  forms  which  might  have 
posed  for  a  Venus  de  Medici.  Their  voices  were  not 
soft  and  pleasant  like  those  of  the  negroes,  but  treble 
and  high-pitched,  so  that  the  illusion  produced  by 
their  beauty  was  often  dispelled  as  soon  as  they 
spoke. 


MILK   SELLER— GUADELOUPE 


GUADELOUPE  103 

The  population  of  Guadeloupe  seemed  to  be  in- 
dustrious, thrifty,  and  happy.  The  women  came  into 
town  bearing  on  their  heads  baskets  filled  with  bottles 
of  milk,  fruits  and  vegetables,  coffee  and  vanilla  beans. 
The  shops  were  numerous  and  well  supplied,  and  an 
air  of  activity  and  prosperity  pervaded  the  place. 
There  was  none  of  the  solicitation  and  begging 
among  the  street  negroes  of  Guadeloupe  which  is  so 
great  a  nuisance  in  most  of  these  West  Indian  towns. 
"  Father,  I  beg  you  a  penny,"  said  many  a  man  and 
woman  and  boy  to  me  from  St.  Kitt's  to  Barbados. 
I  have  not  been  begged  more  persistently  in  Italy 
and  Spain  than  under  the  English  flag  in  these 
islands.  Travellers  generally  have  themselves  to 
blame  for  encouraging  this  kind  of  tax,  but  the 
negroes  are  such  cheerful  and  natural  mendicants 
that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  refuse  them,  especially 
when  their  rags  and  nakedness  offer  prima  facie 
evidence  of  destitution,  but  these  evidences  were 
lacking  at  Point  a  Pitre. 

There  is  an  interesting  museum  in  the  town  which 
contains  specimens  of  the  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles 
of  the  islands,  and  also  many  curiosities  and  remains 
of  the  Carib  tribes  who  dwelt  here  when  Columbus 
came.  There  were  some  living  specimens  of  the 
mongoose.  This  rodent  kills  snakes,  especially  the 
dreaded  fer-de-lance  (whose  bite  is  instant  death)  ; 


104  CilUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

there  were  also  some  specimens  in  alcohol  of  this 
deadly  snake.  We  never  saw  one  alive  in  all  our 
tours,  though  our  ears  were  filled  with  stones  about 
them,  and  we  had  read  the  thrilling  descriptions 
of  Pe"re  Labat  till  it  seemed  as  if  the  Windward 
Islands  without  the  fer-de-lance  would  be  very  tame 
places  to  travel  in.  A  few  extracts  translated  from 
Pere  Labat's  chapters  on  Guadeloupe  will  be  read 
with  interest  in  this  connection.  Writing  of  the 
sulphur  waters,  he  says :  — 

"  There  is  a  part  of  Anse,  particularly  near  the 
river,  where  the  beach  is  covered  with  rocks  and 
pebbles  of  different  sizes,  but  the  rest  is  white,  firm 
sand,  which  makes  an  agreeable  walk.  About  three 
hundred  paces  to  the  left  of  the  church  I  noticed 
that  the  waters  of  the  sea  in  some  places  were  bub- 
bling. I  went  out  in  a  little  canoe  to  see  if  it  was 
really  true,  as  they  told  me,  that  one  could  cook  eggs 
and  fish  in  the  water.  At  a  distance  of  about  three 
fathoms  from  the  shore,  where  the  water  was  four 
feet  deep,  I  found  it  so  warm  in  these  bubbling 
places  that  I  could  not  hold  my  hand  in  it.  I  sent 
for  eggs  and  boiled  them  by  holding  them  sus- 
pended in  the  water  by  means  of  my  handker- 
chief. On  the  beach  I  found  the  surface  of  the 
sand  was  no  hotter  opposite  the  places  where  the 
water  boiled  than  anywhere  else,  but  digging  with 


GUADELOUPE  105 

my  hand  for  five  or  six  inches  I  began  to  feel 
heat,  and  at  a  depth  of  two  feet  I  found  the  sand 
burning  hot  and  smoking  with  a  strong  odor  of 
sulphur. 

"  They  took  me  to  a  sort  of  pond  or  pool,  where 
the  water  was  whitish,  as  if  it  had  been  disturbed. 
Spouts  of  water  were  constantly  seen,  more  fre- 
quently in  the  centre  of  the  pool.  I  took  some 
of  this  water  in  a  shell  and  it  was  really  boiling. 
When  it  cooled  I  tasted  it,  and  found  it  good,  but 
with  a  slight  taste  of  sulphur.  ...  It  is  a  pity 
that  these  waters  are  not  in  the  hands  of  people  who 
could  make  use  of  them,  for  it  is  certain  that  they 
are  excellent  for  many  diseases.  I  was  assured 
that  many  hydropathics  had  been  completely  cured 
after  having  sweated  in  this  sand,  and  many  others 
with  chills  and  nervous  affections  found  relief." 

Respecting  one  of  the  most  famous  birds  of  these 
islands,  he  writes:  "We  were  at  Guadeloupe  at 
the  season  for  hunting  certain  birds  called  '  devils.' 
They  were  to  be  found  in  Guadeloupe  and  Domi- 
nique, where  they  came  at  certain  times  of  the  year 
to  lay  tljeir  eggs  and  hatch  them.  This  bird  is 
about  the  size  of  a  grown  chicken,  its  plumage  is 
black,  and  its  wings  are  long  and  strong;  its  legs 
are  short  with  feet  like  a  duck's,  but  with  long  claws ; 
its  beak  is  long  and  hooked  and  very  hard ;  it  has 


106  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

large  eyes  which  serve  it  well  in  the  night,  but  are 
so  useless  in  the  day  that  it  cannot  stand  the  light 
or  distinguish  objects,  and  if  surprised  by  daylight 
far  from  its  nest,  the  poor  bird  dashes  itself  against 
all  obstacles  in  its  path  and  finally  falls  to  the 
earth.  The  manner  of  hunting  devils  is  to  force 
them  out  of  their  holes  into  the  sunlight  by  means 
of  dogs,  when  they  are  easily  caught  and  their 
necks  wrung."  Again,  speaking  of  the  produc- 
tion of  ginger,  one  of  the  most  profitable  exports, 
he  says :  "  Ginger  comes  from  the  root  of  a  plant 
about  two  feet  high.  This  plant  needs  good  but 
light  earth  to  grow  in,  which  is  the  reason  it  thrives 
in  the  soil  of  the  Grande  Terre  of  Guadeloupe,  which 
is  of  this  quality.  They  plant  the  ginger  at  the  end 
of  the  rainy  season,  that  is,  in  October  and  Novem- 
ber, and  when  it  is  ripe  its  leaves  become  yellow 
and  dry.  The  plant  is  then  taken  up,  separated 
from  its  roots,  and  dried  by  being  exposed  to  the 
air  or  wind,  but  never  to  the  sun,  which  would 
consume  its  delicate  substance  almost  immediately. 
Thus  prepared,  ginger  will  last  as  long  as  one 
wishes  to  keep  it,  but  of  course  it  is  better  when 
fresh." 

Guadeloupe  left  pleasing  impressions.  It  seemed 
less  savage  and  rude  and  more  interesting  than  any 
of  the  islands  we  had  yet  seen.  After  we  had 


GUADELOUPE  107 

visited  the  cathedral,  the  various  quarters  of  the 
town,  the  shops  and  the  photographer's  and  the 
museum,  we  entered  the  launch  and  were  soon  on 
board  and  steaming  on  a  fine  afternoon  towards 
Dominica. 


XIII 
SABBATH  DAY  ISLAND 

RAINBOWS     AMONG     THE     GROO-GROO     PALMS  —  MONSIEUR 
COCKROACH  AND   HIS  MAN   ISAAC  —  A   RARE   MOUNTAIN 

RIDE TROPICAL    AIRS,   SIGHTS    AND    SOUNDS A   NEW 

PARADISE      WITH     SOME      SNAKES HISTORY      OF     DO- 
MINICA 

As  we  moved  along  over  a  waveless  sea  towards 
the  next  landing-place,  I  remarked  especially  a 
phenomenon  which  had  been  noticed  several  times 
upon  the  voyage.  The  island  of  Guadeloupe,  which 
is  one  of  the  largest  islands,  seemed  very  small,  and 
appeared  to  hang  as  it  were  between  sea  and  sky. 
Other  travellers  have  alluded  to  this  appearance 
which  has  some  of  the  elements  of  the  mirage,  but  so 
far  as  I  have  read,  no  one  except  Charles  Kingsley 
has  attempted  an  explanation.  He  ascribes  this 
foreshortening  to  a  combination  of  causes,  among 
which  the  extreme  clearness  of  the  air,  the  simplic- 
ity of  the  form  of  the  islands,  and  their  isolation, 
which  prevents  comparison  with  other  objects,  are 
chief.  Whether  the  explanation  be  correct  or  not, 

108 


SABBATH   DAY   ISLAND  109 

his  observation  accords  with  my  own  when  he 
says  that  "  one  fancies  at  moments  that  the  island 
does  not  rise  out  of  the  sea,  but  floats  upon  it,  that  it 
is  held  in  its  place  not  by  the  roots  of  the  mountains, 
and  deep  miles  of  lava  wall  below,  but  by  the  cloud 
which  has  caught  it  by  the  top,  and  will  not  let  it 
go.  Let  that  cloud  but  rise  and  vanish,  and  the 
whole  beautiful  thing  will  be  cast  adrift;  ready  to 
fetch  away  before  the  wind,  and  (as  it  will  seem 
often  enough  to  do  when  viewed  through  a  cabin- 
port)  to  slide  silently  past  you  while  you  are  sliding 
past  it." 

One  of  the  pleasantest  afternoons  that  I  remember 
was  the  one  on  which  our  vessel  skirted  the  leeward 
side  of  the  bold  and  beautiful  island  of  Dominica, 
whose  steep  shores  were  bordered  with  groo-groo 
palms,  and  whose  lofty  heights  were  clothed  in 
every  shade  of  green,  or  rather  in  hues  ranging  from 
pale  yellow  to  a  sapphire  blue;  down  whose  far- 
reaching  valleys  waterfalls  poured  a  white  line  of 
foam,  and  on  whose  lofty  spurs  and  peaks  a  dozen 
rainbows  were  forming  and  fading,  and  reforming  as 
the  showers  shifted  with  the  changing  gusts  of  air. 
What  we  saw  in  outline  then  was  revealed  in  all  its 
wealth  of  beauty  the  next  day  when  we  rode  on 
horseback  more  than  half-way  across  the  island, 
ascending  through  the  valleys  and  along  the 


110  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

mountain  side  to  the  height  of  more  than  three 
thousand  feet. 

We  cast  anchor  in  front  of  the  pretty  town  of 
Roseau,  at  the  southern  end  of  the  island,  at  six 
o'clock,  and  five  minutes  later  the  sun  went  down 
with  a  bang  from  the  gun  in  the  fort,  and  in  two 
minutes  more  it  began  to  be  dark.  With  the  dark- 
ness came  on  board  the  steamer  Monsieur  "  Cock- 
roach," who  is  the  tourist  agent  of  Dominica.  He 
gathers  the  horses  and  guides  and  attendants  for 
travellers  who  wish  to  go  to  the  boiling  spring  or  the 
lake  of  the  clouds,  or  to  climb  to  the  high  places  of 
the  Caribbean  earth.  He  notifies  "  Isaac  "  and  his 
Creole  wife  to  provide  ices,  and  liquid  refreshment, 
and  fruits  and  a  variety  of  mementos  for  an  ap- 
proaching company,  and  he  intimates  that  original 
Caribs  may  be  seen  and  heard  at  the  half-way  house. 
How  he  came  by  his  name  I  do  not  know.  It  does 
not  suggest  the  man,  for  he  never  crawls,  and  he 
is  clothed  in  clean  white  linen,  with  an  immaculate 
hat.  With  him  we  made  arrangements  for  our  ride 
of  thirty  miles  next  day,  and  had  no  occasion  to 
regret  our  contract. 

The  morning  was  clear  and  warm.  For  a  wonder 
in  Dominica  no  rain  fell  all  day  in  the  part  of  the 
island  which  we  traversed.  At  nine  o'clock  we 
went  ashore  and  found  "  Cockroach  "  waiting  for  us 


SABBATH   DAY  ISLAND  111 

with  about  forty  horses  of  various  sizes,  shapes,  and 
breeds,  though  the  majority  of  them  were  tough 
little  ponies  evidently  accustomed  to  hard  usage  and 
to  mountain  roads.  Captain  Fraser  and  a  friend 
from  Quebec  were  soon  off  with  one  company  to 
visit  the  sulphur  springs.  Our  good  Pennsylvania 
priest  and  other  friends  were  mounted  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  bishop  of  Roseau,  and  they  took  the  course 
to  a  lime  plantation,  returning  in  the  evening  with 
glowing  accounts  of  shady  bowers  and  cooling 
drinks,  and  the  music  of  waterfalls  and  genuine 
West  Indian  hospitality.  The  colonel  had  a  good 
mount  and  rode  as  became  a  graduate  •  from  West 
Point  and  a  cavalry  officer  throughout  our  civil 
war.  The  Lawrence  quartette  were  all  on  hand,  but 
as  there  are  no  wheeled  vehicles  on  the  island,  only 
one  lady  accompanied  the  party. 

The  young  men  were  in  full  force  with  their 
enthusiastic  and  never-wearied  leader,  and  this 
island  has  rarely  had  a  more  intelligent  and  inter- 
ested band  of  visitors.  The  party  followed  the 
valley  for  a  mile  or  two,  wondering  at  the  breadth 
of  the  river  channel,  which  was  more  than  fifty  feet. 
A  small  stream  of  water  ran  through  the  centre,  but 
we  were  assured  that  when  the  rainy  season  comes 
a  full  tide  of  rushing  water  fills  the  course  from  bank 
to  bank.  We  soon  struck  into  a  woodland  road,  and 


112  CRUISING  AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

realized  what  it  was  to  be  in  the  midst  of  tropical 
vegetation.  Great  masses  of  foliage  covered  the 
most  precipitous  and  jagged  mountains.  Looked 
at  from  a  distance,  it  seemed  as  if  the  mountains 
were  wrapped  in  vast  robes  of  sheeny  silk  and 
velvet,  gemmed  with  rubies,  and  emeralds,  and 
topazes.  Whole  expanses  of  gray-green,  shining 
leaves  reflected  the  sun  with  dazzling  effect.  Be- 
yond rose  a  ridge  crowned  with  palmistes,  their  tall, 
smooth  stems  standing  up  against  the  horizon, 
crowned  with  an  umbrella-shaped  top,  which  waved 
perceptibly  in  the  wind,  even  at  such  an  altitude. 
Near  at  hand,  along  the  road,  which  later  became 
only  a  path,  trees  and  vines  were  dense  and  often 
interlaced.  There  were  breadfruit,  mango,  lime,  and 
lemon  trees ;  forests  of  cocoa  trees  loaded  with  fruit 
about  the  size  of  a  large  cucumber,  colored  accord- 
ing to  the  stage  of  development,  green,  yellow,  or 
rich  purple,  and  seeming  to  grow  directly  from  the 
branch  without  any  stem;  clumps  of  green  and 
graceful  bamboos  rising  a  hundred  feet  into  the  air 
and  waving  their  feathery  tops;  huge  ceiba  trees 
covered  with  parasites  and  orchids;  almond  trees 
and  giant  flamboyants  with  red  blossoms.  Further 
up,  in  vales  and  hollows,  we  came  to  manifold  tree 
ferns,  whose  slender  stalks  supported  at  the  height 
of  twenty  or  thirty  feet  the  most  delicate  green  lace 


SABBATH  DAY  ISLAND  113 

work  parasols  and  umbrellas  that  were  ever  seen. 
The  ravines  were  full  of  those  of  larger  growth,  and 
the  banks  along  our  path  were  covered  with  little 
ones  all  infinitely  beautiful.  Here,  too,  were  banana 
and  tamarind  trees  loaded  with  clusters  of  fruit, 
while  half  hid  from  view  by  their  enormous  fronds, 
some  curious  red  flowers,  shaped  like  lobster's  claws, 
clung  to  the  green  stems  of  a  strange  plant.  I 
counted  fifty  kinds  of  flowers  on  a  single  bank,  and 
the  ferns  and  mosses  were  innumerable. 

As  we  rose  higher,  the  air,  which  had  been  warm 
and  languorous,  became  fresh  and  clear,  and  the 
ocean  could  now  and  then  be  seen  on  each  side  of  the 
island.  Anon  we  descended  into  deep  valleys,  where 
limes  were  cultivated  on  a  plantation,  and  into 
denser  valleys,  where  nothing  met  the  eye  but  an 
ocean  of  foliage,  heights  crowned  with  trees  and 
interlaced  with  shrubs,  a  Colorado  canon  resplendent 
with  rich  vegetation  of  the  rarest  and  most  beautiful 
sorts.  However  high  we  climbed,  there  were  higher 
mountains,  and  the  more  we  explored,  the  greater 
the  wonders  and  the  rarer  the  treasures  were. 
Language  utterly  fails  to  describe  the  richness  and 
beauty  and  variety  of  trees  and  shrubs  arid  flowers 
and  greens  and  colors  in  nature,  which  ravished  our 
eyes.  Odors,  delicious  and  sensuous,  filled  the  air, 
and  the  place  seemed  in  all  respects  a  woodland 


114  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAKIBBEES 

paradise.  The  strange  songs  of  birds  which  we  did 
not  know  often  startled  us.  Beautiful  humming- 
birds of  peacock-colored  plumage,  or  black,  with 
garnet  spotted  throats,  or  golden  green,  glistening 
like  winged  jewels  in  the  sunshine,  flew  about,  and 
not  hovering  on  the  wing  as  they  do  in  our  gardens, 
but  lighting  on  twigs  and  plants,  they  gazed  upon 
us  with  more  curiosity  than  fear. 

Through  such  beauties  we  rode  on  and  on  for  a 
dozen  miles  to  a  lovely  fresh-water  lake  embosomed 
in  the  hills  and  girt  about  with  tropical  forests; 
after  resting  here  and  comparing  our  gathered  treas- 
ures of  plants  and  fruits  and  flowers,  the  party 
retraced  its  steps  to  the  half-way  house,  where  Isaac, 
in  obedience  to  "  Cockroach,"  had  provided  a  good 
luncheon.  After  luncheon  we  were  entertained 
with  Creole  songs  and  dances,  which  have  evidently 
descended  from  the  days  when  planters  lived  on 
these  islands  with  their  families  of  slaves.  The 
melodies  were  sweet  and  quaint,  unlike  modern 
negro  songs,  and  yet  with  little  resemblance  to  the 
music  of  civilization.  The  dances  were  graceful 
and  pleasing,  and  consisted  largely  of  swaying 
motions  of  the  body  and  gestures  of  the  arms  and 
head  to  rhythmic  music.  These  pleasures  ended, 
we  rode  down  the  mountain  and  through  the  little 
town,  full  of  delightful  memories  of  lovely  scenes. 


SABBATH  DAY  ISLAND  115 

Roseau,  the  chief  town  upon  the  island  of  Domin- 
ica, is  picturesquely  situated  on  the  sea  at  the 
mouth  of  a  river  which  comes  rushing  and  roar- 
ing down  through  hills  which,  though  broken  and 
ragged,  are  yet  densely  covered  with  a  vast  variety 
of  foliage.  It  is  a  little  place,  with  a  few  streets 
running  at  right  angles,  paved  with  large  stones, 
and  ending  in  three  roads  which  lead  into  the 
mountains  and  up  and  down  the  coast.  There  is 
a  row  of  solid  houses  near  the  landing.  The  other 
houses  are  small  and  mostly  built  of  wood,  one  story 
high  and  twenty  feet  square.  Some  are  even 
smaller.  I  went  into  a  little  enclosure  containing  a 
one-story  house,  a  cocoanut  tree  and  a  breadfruit  tree, 
and  also  a  small  garden  patch.  A  man  and  two 
women  were  squatting  around  a  kettle  containing 
the  dinner.  The  door  of  the  house  stood  open,  and 
its  one  room  was  only  large  enough  for  an  ordinary- 
sized  bed  and  a  chair  beside  it.  There  were  hooks 
on  the  rough  board  walls,  and  clothes  and  tin  dishes 
hung  indiscriminately  upon  them.  This  was  the 
home  of  five  people,  three  adults  and  two  children. 
The  climate  is  warm  and  they  live  mostly  out  of 
doors.  But  as  there  is  much  rain  in  Dominica  these 
people  must  be  wet  a  great  part  of  the  time.  I 
passed  a  Sunday  here,  and  attended  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  and  English  churches.  The  latter  is  a 


116  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

large  stone  building  with  a  clock,  and  some  grand 
palmistes  in  front  of  it.  The  old  French  Catholic 
Cathedral  is  larger  than  both  the  other  churches, 
as  it  well  may  be,  for  almost  ihe  entire  population 
is  of  that  faith.  Opposite  the  English  church  is 
the  governor's  house  and  a  well-stocked  botanical 
garden.  Each  of  the  islands  has  a  garden  of  this 
sort,  well  kept  and  a  source  of  evident  pleasure  and 
pride  to  the  inhabitants.  Each  town  of  any  size 
has  also  a  public  library  with  a  fair  assortment  of 
books,  and  a  reading  room.  I  remembered  that  New 
York  has  as  yet  no  public  library,  and  that  the 
charter  for  a  botanical  garden  has  only  just  now 
been  obtained.  The  frequent  showers  and  hot  sun- 
shine in  Dominica  cause  a  prolific  growth  of  vegeta- 
tion. The  gardens  are  full  of  trees  and  plants, 
flowering  vines  cover  the  walls,  and  there  are  many 
birds  and  butterflies  flitting  about  in  the  sun- 
shine. 

I  must  add  a  few  interesting  facts  about  Dominica. 
The  island  is  twenty-nine  miles  long  by  sixteen 
broad,  and  is  the  most  southern  of  the  islands 
belonging  to  what  is  called  by  the  British  the 
Leeward  group.  Its  area  is  two  hundred  and 
ninety-one  miles,  its  population  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand. The  island  is  noted  for  the  amount  of  its 
rainfall,  which  greatly  adds  to  its  fertility.  The 


SABBATH   DAY  ISLAND  117 

thermometer  stands  at  eighty  degrees  Fahrenheit 
in  the  shade  during  the  months  of  June,  July,  and 
August;  and  at  seventy  degrees  during  the  other 
months.  The  sun  is  vertical  from  May  to  August, 
and  the  inhabitants  ascii  (or  shadowless)  at  noon. 
The  longest  day  is  thirteen  hours,  the  shortest  ten. 
September  and  October  are  the  least  healthy  months 
of  the  year.  Its  exports  are  cattle,  cocoa,  lime  juice, 
rum,  molasses,  and  sugar.  The  chief  town  is  Roseau. 
It  was  discovered  by  Columbus  on  Sunday,  Nov. 
3,  1493,  hence  its  name.  It  was  colonized  by  the 
French,  whom  the  Caribs  allowed  to  settle.  In 
1748,  by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  England  and 
France  stipulated  that  Dominica  should  be  regarded 
as  neutral,  and  left  to  the  Caribs.  Later,  French- 
men settled  on  the  island,  but  in  1756  it  became 
by  conquest  a  dependency  of  Great  Britain.  Culti- 
vable lands  were  sold,  and  yielded  to  the  crown 
312,092  pounds  sterling.  The  French  settlers  were 
generously  treated,  and  allowed  to  remain  secure  in 
their  possessions. 

In  1771  Dominica  was  constituted  a  separate  gov- 
ernment. In  1776,  attracted  by  its  fertility,  the 
French  took  advantage  of  the  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  North  American  colonies  and  at- 
tacked Dominica  from  Martinique.  The  French 
inhabitants  of  the  islands  invited  them  to  do  this, 


118  CRUISING   AMONG  THE   CAKIBBEES 

and  aided  by  making  the  English  soldiers  at  the  fort 
drunk  and  then  filling  the  cannon  with  sand.  The 
English  troops  and  colonists  made  desperate  re- 
sistance, but  surrendered  in  1778  and  were  badly 
treated.  In  1783  the  island  was  restored  to  the 
British.  A  final  attack  was  made  by  the  French 
in  1805  under  General  La  Grange,  who  landed  on 
Roseau,  but  the  French  only  held  the  place  for  five 
days,  levying  contributions  and  destroying  the  ship- 
ping; then  they  re-embarked.  This  was  the  last 
invasion,  and  the  inhabitants  still  date  from  La 
Grange  or  1805. 


XIV 
CARIES   OF  DOMINICA  AND  ST.  VINCENT 

COLUMBUS    AND    THE    CARIES A    FORGOTTEN    LANGUAGE 

THE   REMNANT  OF   A   PEOPLE JENNY   THE   MONKEY 

AND    HER   REFLECTIONS 

THIS  is  perhaps  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  Carib  Indians  who  once  dominated  these 
islands.  We  saw  a  few  of  their  descendants,  and  it 
is  claimed  that  upon  their  reservation  at  Dominica, 
and  at  St.  Vincent,  there  are  still  some  families  of 
pure  Carib  blood.  When  Mr.  Ober  visited  them  in 
1876  he  found  about  twenty  families.  His  last  visit, 
in  1892,  was  made  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  how 
many  of  these  Caribs  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  go 
to  the  Chicago  Columbian  Exposition;  it  being  the 
intention  of  the  managers  to  include  all  the  represen- 
tatives of  America  in  their  ethnological  department. 
At  that  time  there  were  about  two  hundred  Caribs 
in  Dominica,  and  of  this  number  less  than  fifteen 
families  were  uncontaminated  with  negro  blood. 
They  were  living  in  very  much  the  same  style  as  their 
ancestors  did  when  Columbus  found  them  in  1493. 

119 


120  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

Columbus  saw  the  Caribs  first,  not  on  this  island, 
but  at  Carbet,  near  the  point  of  Capesterre,  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Guadeloupe.  They  were  dwelling 
in  huts  covered  with  palm  branches;  they  made 
cassava  bread  from  the  manihot  plant,  and  caught 
fish  along  the  shores,  using  the  boats  for  the  purpose 
which  they  had  dug  out  of  gum  tree  logs ;  and  they 
wove  baskets  like  those  which  are  now  offered  to  the 
traveller. 

But  when  Columbus  found  them,  they  were  not 
the  peaceful  and  indolent  people  who  now  bear  their 
name.  Irving  describes  them  as  trained  to  war  from 
their  infancy,  able  to  use  the  bow  and  arrow  with 
unerring  accuracy,  and  having  sufficient  knowledge 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  to  enable  them  to  calculate 
times  and  seasons.  They  let  their  coarse  black  hair 
grow  long,  painted  their  faces  and  bodies,  and  both 
men  and  women  fought  the  Spaniards  desperately. 
Proofs  were  found  in  their  huts  that  they  were  can- 
nibals. They  were  treated  as  such  by  the  Spaniards, 
but  they  struck  back,  and  many  a  proud  hidalgo  bit 
the  dust  before  they  were  subdued.  Columbus  called 
them  Caribs  or  cannibals,  both  of  which  names  are 
designations  of  valor  or  strength.  The  Caribs  of 
South  America  claim  a  similar  meaning  for  their 
name,  and  the  author  of  "  Myths  of  the  New  World," 
thinks  that  Shakespeare  drew  the  plot  of  "  The 


CARIES   OF  DOMINICA   AND   ST.   VINCENT       121 

Tempest"  from  South  American  mythology;  that 
"  Caliban,"  the  savage  native  of  the  island  in  the  play, 
is  undoubtedly  the  word  "  Carib,"  often  spelled  among 
South  American  Indians  "  Caribana"  and  "  Calibani." 
Another  curious  fact,  is  that  Robinson  Crusoe's 
"Man  Friday"  was  a  Carib,  and  his  "island"  was 
Tobago  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  which  we  saw  but  did 
not  visit.  But  they  had  changed  little  in  a  hundred 
years,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  account  given  by  a 
writer  of  the  last  century :  "  The  Caribs  are  of  clear 
copper  color,  and  have  sleek,  black  hair ;  their  persons 
are  well  made,  but  they  disfigure  their  faces  by  flatten- 
ing their  foreheads  in  infancy.  They  live  chiefly  by 
fishing  in  the  rivers  and  the  sea,  or  by  fowling  in  the 
woods,  and  in  both  pursuits  they  use  their  arrows 
with  wonderful  dexterity.  It  is  said  they  will  kill 
the  smallest  bird  with  an  arrow  at  a  great  distance, 
or  transfix  a  fish  at  a  considerable  depth  in  the  sea. 
They  display  also  great  ingenuity  in  making  curiously 
wrought  panniers  or  baskets  of  silk  grass  or  the 
leaves  and  bark  of  trees."  They  have  preserved  this 
art  of  basket  making  to  the  present  day.  I  bought 
at  Roseau  a  beautiful  and  useful  basket,  about  the 
size  of  a  small  trunk.  It  is  chiefly  valuable  on 
account  of  its  lightness  and  also  because  it  is  water- 
proof. It  is  made  from  a  plant  called  mahoe,  in  two 
thicknesses,  with  layers  of  wild  plantain  between. 


122  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

This  basket  was  not  cheap,  for  the  materials  of  which 
it  is  made  are  scarce,  and  the  makers  have  a  monopoly 
of  the  market,  but  it  is  a  most  serviceable  article  at 
home  or  in  travel.  I  saw  sets  or  "  nests "  of  these 
baskets,  as  well  as  of  another  smaller  and  more  delicate 
sort  of  Indian  basket  which  is  common  in  the  islands. 

The  Carib  reservation  in  Dominica  extends  from 
Mahoe  River  to  Crayfish  River,  about  three  miles 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  as  far  as  they  choose 
to  cultivate  inland.  They  raise  the  yam,  sweet 
potato,  cassava,  banana,  plantain,  and  tannier. 
Their  little  settlement,  a  mere  hamlet,  is  called 
Salibia.  Here  they  live,  no  longer  warlike  or  enter- 
prising, satisfied  with  the  careless  and  monotonous 
existence  of  uncivilized  man.  Of  the  whole  number 
of  two  hundred,  perhaps  ten  could  make  a  canoe 
and  twenty  weave  a  perfect  basket.  The  majority 
display  no  mechanical  ingenuity.  They  raise  the 
vegetables  and  gather  the  fruits  which  grow  almost 
without  planting  and  mature  without  care. 

Their  ancient  language  is  no  longer  used  to  any 
extent,  and  a  patois  made  up  of  French  and  English 
iu  unequal  proportions,  is  their  common,  and  to  a 
stranger  unintelligible  tongue.  Though  called 
Indians,  they  have  little  in  common  with  the  tribes 
which  we  designate  by  that  general  name.  Their 
faces  are  oval,  with  broad  and  handsome  foreheads, 


CAKIBS   OF   DOMINICA   AND   ST.    VINCENT       123 

rather  high  cheek  bones,  the  eyes  far  apart,  the  nose 
regular  and  well  proportioned,  the  mouth  of  moder- 
ate size  with  rather  thin  lips ;  their  skin  is  yellow  or 
golden  brown,  and  they  have  long,  abundant,  and  fine 
hair,  purple-black  in  color,  like  the  hair  of  many 
Spanish  women,  though  not  of  so  fine  a  quality  as 
theirs.  They  have  graceful  forms  in  youth,  and 
very  well  shaped  arms  and  legs,  with  small  hands 
and  feet.  Like  all  the  people  of  these  islands,  they 
stand  erect,  hold  their  heads  with  natural  grace,  and 
walk  with  an  air  of  dignity  and  honor.  But  they 
grow  old  soon  and  are  then  even  more  hideous  than 
the  negroes  about  them.  They  are  nominally  Roman 
Catholics  and  the  priest  of  Roseau  visits  them  and 
administers  the  sacraments.  Their  ancestors  believed 
in  some  sort  of  a  future  state,  and  in  a  supreme  being 
to  whom  they  offered  sacrifice.  The  brave  among 
them  were  supposed  to  go  after  death  to  a  state  of 
felicity;  the  cowardly  were  banished  to  dreary  deserts 
and  rugged  mountains. 

Mr.  Ober  lived  for  two  weeks  with  the  Caribs 
of  St.  Vincent,  in  a  little  wattled  hut  thatched 
with  leaves,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  vocabu- 
lary of  their  ancient  language.  He  found  but  six 
families  of  pure  Carib  blood  and  but  a  few  persons 
who  could  speak  the  Carib  tongue,  and  most  of 
these  were  women.  He  says  that  "they  have 


124  CRUISING   AMONG   THE  CAKIBBEES 

few  terms  of  abuse,  and  about  the  most  offensive 
is,  'you  are  no  good,'  or  'you  are  no  livelier  than 
a  turtle.'  They  have  no  word  for  virtue,  which 
even  at  the  present  day  is  rare  indeed.  In  count- 
ing they  cannot  express  themselves  above  twenty 
and  then  only  by  means  of  the  fingers  and  toes. 
My  wife  is  'my  heart';  a  boy  is  'a  little  man'; 
the  fingers  are  the  '  babes  of  the  hands ' ;  the  rain- 
bow is  '  God's  plume.'  There  is  a  people  among 
them  called  'Black  Caribs,'  formed  by  the  union 
of  the  American  and  the  Ethiopian.  These  com- 
prise a  small  community  on  the  northwestern  shore 
of  St.  Vincent,  at  a  place  called  Morne  Ronde." 
Throughout  the  island  he  found  traces  of  the  ancient 
inhabitants,  weapons,  domestic  utensils,  axes,  spear- 
heads, chisels,  and  fragments  of  pottery.  Some  of 
the  rocks  are  covered  with  rude  hieroglyphics,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Caribs  ever 
came  to  or  from  the  continent  of  North  America. 
If  they  came  originally  from  the  southern  conti- 
nent, as  is  likely,  they  had  no  relation  to  the 
Aztecs,  but  were  a  ruder  and  more  warlike  people. 
Some  of  the  South  American  Caribs  were  pas- 
sengers with  us  on  the  homeward  voyage  under  the 
care  of  an  agent  of  Barnum's  show.  He  was  bring- 
ing them  to  New  York  to  join  the  ethnological 
department  of  the  great  show,  which  was  about 


CAlilBS   OP   DOMINICA   AND   ST.   VINCENT       125 

to  make  its  annual  progress  through  the  United 
States.  They  were  good-looking,  yellow,  long- 
haired, red  painted  men  and  women,  stout-bodied  and 
with  extremely  broad  shoulders  and  strong  limbs. 
The  children  were  fat,  with  white  teeth  and  mis- 
chievous black  eyes,  but  they  were  not  half  so 
amusing  as  "Jenny,"  the  monkey  which  one  of 
our  party  bought  at  St.  Kitt's.  She  was  a  veritable 
actress  and  was  often  brought  out  for  our  amusement. 
A  more  pathetic  and  ludicrous  scene  was  never 
enacted,  than  that  which  took  place  when  she  first 
saw  her  own  reflection  in  a  mirror.  No  Carib 
Indian  child  or  adult  could  give  so  interesting  a 
performance.  But  alas,  these  Caribs  are  immortals, 
though  their  day  on  earth  is  nearly  done. 

It  was  sad  to  meditate  upon  the  speedy  extinction 
of  such  a  race.  Once  they  were  brave,  powerful, 
and  in  happy  possession  of  some  of  the  fairest 
regions  of  the  earth.  Now,  the  few  remnants  are 
spiritless  and  degraded,  without  even  a  knowledge 
of  their  ancestors,  unable  to  speak  their  language, 
content  with  a  mere  existence,  and  gradually  yield- 
ing to  the  pressure  of  a  civilization  which  is  sweep- 
ing them  into  oblivion. 


XV 

ISLE  DE   MARTINIQUE 

FRANCE     IN     THE     TKOPICS  —  FOUNTAINS     AND     FLOWING 

WATERS MARDI    GRAS    AND    WILD     REVELRIES THE 

"  SWIZZLE  "  AND  ITS  USES SNAKE  STORIES  —  EMPRESS 

JOSEPHINE,    HER    EARLY    LIFE    HERE   AND    HER   STATUE 
MADAME   DE   MAINTENON 

WE  had  been  looking  forward  to  Martinique  as 
the  queen  of  the  Caribbees,  and  in  some  respects 
were  not  disappointed.  The  island  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  in  its  outlines,  admirably  cultivated, 
peopled  with  lively  and  enterprising  inhabitants,  and 
full  of  sights  and  sounds  which  attract  and  entertain 
the  traveller.  Its  lofty  Montagne  Pele*e  is  hooded 
with  clouds  a  great  part  of  the  time,  but  now  and 
then  the  summit  is  revealed,  a  mass  of  green,  sky- 
piercing  and  grand,  supported  by  vast  flanks  that 
sweep  in  graceful  undulations  to  the  sea.  There  are 
luxuriant  plantations,  dense  and  dark  forests,  vil- 
lages upon  the  high  slopes,  and  two  picturesque 
towns,  St.  Pierre  and  Fort  de  France,  along  the 
shores.  The  anchor  of  the  Madiana  dropped  into  the 

126 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  127 

azure  sea,  and  straightway  a  little  fleet  of  coffin- 
shaped  boxes,  propelled  by  naked  boys  each  with  two 
little  paddles,  came  hurrying  out  to  meet  us.  They 
had  come  as  at  St.  Thomas  to  dive  for  coins,  and 
soon  they  were  plunging  into  the  harbor  after  little 
silver  pieces  which  the  passengers  lavishly  threw 
overboard.  The  boys  were  quick  to  see  the  coins  as 
they  touched  the  water,  and  tumbled  out  of  their 
queer  tubs  in  a  wild  scramble  for  them.  Long  before 
the  coin  was  out  of  sight,  they  had  swam  beneath  it, 
and  with  the  speed  of  fishes  reappeared,  holding  the 
treasure  high  uplifted  in  their  hands.  This  scene 
was  repeated  daily  and  at  all  hours,  and  the  lithe 
brown  bodies  of  these  coin  fishers  became  familiar 
objects  about  the  vessel  while  we  lay  in  the  harbor 
of  St.  Pierre. 

The  town  is  unique,  a  strange  mingling  of  France 
and  the  tropics.  It  lies  along  the  curve  of  a  pretty 
bay  and  rises  in  terraces  upon  the  mountain  side. 
The  prevailing  color  of  the  stone  houses  is  a  golden 
yellow,  which  is  set  off  by  red  tiled  roofs  here 
and  there.  A  hurricane  desolated  the  place  a  few 
years  since,  and  when  the  houses  were  rebuilt  many 
of  them  were  roofed  with  corrugated  iron,  which 
has  none  of  the  picturesque  effects  of  the  old  red 
tiles.  The  houses  of  the  town  are  mostly  built 
along  narrow  streets,  and  have  unglazed  windows, 


128  CllUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

which  at  night  are  covered  with  heavy  wooden 
shutters,  in  which  there  are  movable  slats.  The 
streets  are  steep  and  well  paved,  and  through  the 
wide  gutters  a  constant  stream  of  water  pours  down, 
carrying  all  the  sewage  to  the  sea.  This  rushing 
mountain  water  is  the  feature  of  the  town ;  it  rises  in 
numerous  pretty  fountains  and  is  the  public  scaven- 
ger of  the  island.  Men  with  huge  poles  and  hooks 
keep  the  gutters  from  becoming  clogged  and  clear 
the  cesspools  at  the  foot  of  the  streets,  which  other- 
wise would  become  stuffed  with  cocoanut  shells  and 
palm  leaves  and  plantain  skins,  and  all  sorts  of  rub- 
bish which  are  constantly  thrown  into  these  street 
channels.  On  the  quay  are  thousands  of  hogsheads 
of  molasses,  and  casks  of  rum  and  bags  of  sugar, 
waiting  shipment;  powerful  blacks  swarm  among 
them,  rolling  and  carrying  them  from  place  to  place. 
There  was  not  much  work  performed  after  our  first 
day  in  Martinique,  for  it  was  the  festival  of  Mardi 
Gras  and  the  people  gave  themselves  up  to  a  strange 
mingling  of  devotion  and  dissipation.  The  costumes 
of  the  women  are  fantastic  and  bewildering  at  any 
time,  but  as  the  festival  advanced,  they  became  as 
grotesque  and  brilliant  as  any  scene  that  was  ever 
set  upon  the  stage.  The  various  faces  of  black,  and 
red,  and  brown,  and  yellow,  and  of  delicate  cream 
and  rouge,  were  a  study  for  a  painter  or  an  ethnol- 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  129 

ogist,  and  the  straight  bodies  and  easy  swinging  gait 
of  the  unshod  feet  of  most  of  the  inhabitants  pro- 
duced a  novel  impression  upon  the  beholder.  On 
Sunday  morning  high  mass  was  celebrated  in  the 
Cathedral  and  afterwards  the  whole  town  seemed 
to  be  given  up  to  revelry 'and  dissipation.  Bands 
of  masked  men  and  women  paraded  the  streets 
dressed  in  the  most  vulgar  style.  As  night  came 
on  the  tumult  increased,  the  great  theatre  was 
crowded  to  suffocation,  and  yelling,  laughing,  danc- 
ing, and  deviltry  of  all  sorts  made  night  hideous. 
We  were  glad  of  the  refuge  which  the  steamer 
afforded  from  such  a  pandemonium,  but  even  at 
our  anchorage  we  could  hear  the  blare  of  the  trum- 
pets and  the  shouts  of  the  excited  crowds  upon 
the  shore.  I  had  seen  the  festival  in  New  Orleans 
and  elsewhere,  where  great  license  was  allowed, 
but  here  it  became,  before  it  was  ended,  a  wild 
and  disgusting  orgy. 

The  island  contrasts  favorably  with  those  which 
belong  to  Great  Britain.  There  is  none  of  that 
abject  poverty  and  incessant  beggary  on  the  French' 
islands  which  meet  one  at  every  turn  in  the  Eng- 
lish possessions.  The  people  have  an  air  of  thrift 
and  self-respect  which  finds  expression  in  the  clean- 
liness, dress,  and  taste  displayed  in  their  streets, 
houses,  and  costumes.  Some  of  the  women  are 


130  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

very  pretty  and  they  wear  their  gay  dresses  in  a 
style  which  leaves  one  arm  and  shoulder  bare,  and 
with  their  long  skirts  looped  up  at  the  hips.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  population  are  of  mixed 
blood,  and  have  the  fondness  for  ornaments  and 
display  which  is  common  to  all  half-breeds.  At 
the  Cathedral,  a  large  and  handsome  building  with 
a  sweet  chime  of  bells,  I  saw  a  congregation  which 
filled  the  place,  and  was  composed,  like  most 
Roman  Catholic  assemblies,  chiefly  of  women. 
Nearly  all  of  these  wore  yellow  and  green  turbans, 
made  of  Madras  handkerchiefs  with  one  end  stick- 
ing out  above  the  regular  rolls  of  the  silk  or  linen, 
like  the  plume  of  a  soldier's  cap.  Some  of  the 
women  had  many  bracelets  and  bangles  on  their 
arms,  chains  of  huge  gold  beads  around  their  necks, 
and  curious  earrings  of  three  or  four  cylinders  of 
gold  fastened  to  the  ears  by  enormous  hoops. 
These  heavy  pendants  dragged  down  the  lobes  of 
the  ears  till  it  seemed  as  if  the  flesh  would  be  torn 
through  by  their  excessive  weight. 

Passing  through  the  avenue  Victor  Hugo,  which 
is  the  main  street  of  the  city,  one  morning,  I  over- 
took a  crowd  of  boys  who  were  following  a  rough 
and  unkempt  specimen  of  humanity,  who  carried  a 
large  iguana,  which  he  had  caught  in  the  woods. 
He  had  tied  the  clumsy  legs  of  the  reptile  across 


ISLE  DE   MARTINIQUE  131 

its  back,  and  was  carrying  his  captive  by  the  tail. 
This  immense  lizard  was  as  ugly  a  creature  as  I 
ever  saw,  about  three  feet  long,  with  a  black  coarse 
skin  divided  into  large  diamond-shaped  sections,  a 
triangular  head  with  lustreless  eyes,  and  a  cavern- 
ous mouth.  His  legs  were  long  and  thick,  and 
ended  in  finger-shaped  claws.  The  animal  is  not 
uncommon,  is  not  at  all  dangerous  to  attack,  and 
its  flesh  is  said  to  be  white  and  very  much  like 
chicken.  This  one  was  sold  by  its  captor  at  the 
first  butcher's  shop,  and  for  all  I  know  we  may 
have  eaten  it,  in  some  of  the  highly  seasoned  ra- 
gouts of  which  we  partook  while  on  the  island.  It 
was  at  Martinique  that  some  of  the  party  made 
their  acquaintance  with  the  "swizzle,"  and  in  mem- 
ory thereof  brought  home  the  swizzle-stick,  a  deli- 
cate twig  with  three  or  four  small  branches  stripped 
of  its  bark,  and  prepared  for  the  same  use  as  the 
toddy-stick  of  former  times.  Of  all  beguiling  drinks 
the  "  swizzle  "  is  said  to  be  the  most  delusive.  It 
is  apparently  compounded  of  ice  water  and  lime 
juice  and  lemonade,  with  a  little  pure  rum,  and  a 
liberal  allowance  of  sweet  sirup.  It  tastes  like 
sweet  sherbet,  and  reminds  one  of  the  bazaars  of 
Cairo  and  Damascus,  but  let  not  the  unwary  trav- 
eller quench  his  thirst  as  freely  with  this  seemingly 
innocent  beverage  as  he  would  among  the  temper- 


132  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

ate  Mohammedans.  The  intoxicating  quality  of 
the  alcohol  is  immensely  increased  by  the  fermen- 
tation of  the  sweetening,  and  those  who  ventured 
to  test  the  chemical  qualities  of  the  "  swizzle "  by 
the  personal  analysis  of  more  than  one  glass,  were 
sorrowful  and  apologetic  thereafter.  Total  absti- 
nence is  always  a  good  rule  where  strong  liquor  is 
an  ingredient  in  any  drink,  and  especially  useful 
in  dealing  with  unknown  mixtures. 

This  island  was  for  a  long  time  the  residence  of 
Pe~re  Labat,  to  whose  chronicles  I  have  already 
referred.  He  was  a  keen  observer  of  all  natural 
phenomena,  as  well  as  an  expert  judge  of  men.  He 
tells  how  at  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season  the 
crabs,  the  turtles,  the  lizards,  arid  the  serpents  leave 
the  woods  and  go  to  the  sea.  After  the  latter  have 
bathed  there,  they  pass  between  underbrush  which 
has  thorns,  to  which  they  attach  themselves  by  the 
collar,  and  leave  their  whole  skin.  They  then  hide 
in  some  hole  or  in  the  root  of  a  tree  until  their 
new  skin  is  sufficiently  hardened  to  expose  to  the 
air.  During  these  times,  when  they  are  obliged 
to  remain  in  seclusion,  they  become  very  thin  and 
feeble,  but  no  one  pities  them  under  these  or  any 
circumstances.  The  time  when  the  serpents  are 
most  dangerous  is  during  the  heat.  Then  one 
may  hear  them  hiss  to  each  other,  and  it  is  not  a 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  133 

good  plan  to  go  hunting.  The  negroes  scent  these 
serpents  as  a  dog  would  a  hare. 

"  One  morning,"  writes  Labat,  "  I  was  in  the 
woods  with  our  men,  one  of  whom  was  walking 
before  me.  Suddenly  he  stopped  and  said :  '  My 
father,  look  at  your  feet,  there  is  a  serpent  near  here 
somewhere.'  I  asked  him  where,  and  he  said  :  'I  do 
not  see  it,  but  I  smell  it,'  and  truly,  I  was  sensible  of 
a  faint  odor.  A  few  moments  later  we  discovered 
the  serpent  and  killed  it  as  is  the  custom.  It  was 
six  feet  long,  and  thick  as  a  man's  leg.  I  gave  the 
body  to  some  of  our  negroes,  who  easily  disposed  of 
it.  I  would  have  eaten  some  with  them,  for  the 
meat  is  very  nourishing,  when  not  eaten  too  often, 
but  for  the  fear  of  alarming  the  others  of  the  party. 

At  another  time  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  a 
snake  swallow  a  pillory.  This  is  a  sort  of  rat,  native 
to  these  islands,  nearly  white  and  much  larger  than 
the  ordinary  sized  rat  of  Europe.  As  soon  as  the 
serpent  had  bitten  the  pillory,  it  climbed  quickly  into 
the  branches  of  a  tree  at  the  foot  of  which  the  pillory 
struggled  for  about  fifteen  minutes  and  then  died. 
The  serpent  then  came  down  and  rolled  himself  on 
the  pillory,  until  he  had  arranged  it  with  its  front 
feet  by  its  sides,  and  its  back  feet  alongside  of  its 
tail,  and  after  it  was  well  laid  out  he  took  it  by  its 
head  and  sucked  it  little  by  little  into  his  stomach, 


134  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAIUBBEES 

although  it  was  quite  difficult,  for  he  was  little  and 
the  pillory  very  big !  It  was  his  last  meal,  for  after 
I  had  seen  what  I  wanted  to  see  I  killed  him." 

There  are  many  things  to  detain  and  interest  the 
tourist  at  Martinique.  The  scenes  and  society  of  the 
island  are  different  in  many  respects  from  those 
with  which  he  becomes  familiar  in  British  colonies. 
The  people  do  not  regard  themselves  as  temporary 
exiles  hoping  erelong  to  return  to  the  mother 
country,  as  British  colonial  people  generally  do. 
The  French  have  made  the  island  their  home  and 
are  proud  of  its  loveliness  and  prosperity.  Mar- 
tinique is  inseparably  associated  with  Napoleon  as 
the  birthplace  of  Josephine,  and  it  has  a  large  place 
in  the  history  of  the  seventeenth-century  conflicts 
between  England  and  France. 

We  made  sundry  excursions  to  the  interior  of  the 
island.  One  morning  we  drove  for  several  hours  up 
the  heights  to  the  village  of  Morne  Rouge,  two  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  sea,  over  a  fine  smooth  road 
along  which  were  shrines,  and  little  chapels,  and 
crucifixes,  and  statues,  with  lamps  burning  before 
them  and  numerous  votive  offerings.  The  road  led 
us  by  the  botanical  garden,  a  choice  and  beautiful 
retreat  from  the  noise  of  the  town  and  the  noonday 
heat  of  the  sun.  The  river  beside  which  the  road  is 
built  for  a  portion  of  the  way,  was  at  this  season  a 


ISLE   DE   MAETINIQUE  135 

small  stream,  and  its  channel  was  filled  with  half- 
naked  washerwomen  who  covered  the  rocks  with 
garments  after  having  reduced  them  to  a  pitiable 
condition  by  pounding  them  with  stones.  At  the 
lower  end  of  the  town  near  to  the  outlet  of  the  river 
is  the  market-place,  a  large  open  structure  occupying 
a  handsome  square.  It  was  full  of  people,  a  great 
proportion  of  whom  were  women  in  the  gayest  of 
costumes,  and  as  noisy  as  parrots.  The  markets  of 
any  town  are  interesting,  and  give  an  idea  of  one 
phase  of  the  life  of  a  people ;  for  what  a  nation  eats 
and  drinks  has  much  influence  upon  what  the  nation 
does.  Judging  the  natives  of  the  Antilles  by  this 
rule,  we  may  account  for  their  unwarlike,  good- 
natured,  and  passive  character.  Very  little  flesh  is 
seen  in  the  markets  compared  with  the  amount  of 
fish  and  fruit.  Nowhere  else  have  I  seen  such  fishes 
as  swim  among  these  islands.  A  painter  would  revel 
in  their  colors,  scarlet  and  pink  and  green  and  gold 
and  lilac  and  bronze  and  glistening  silver.  Their 
shapes  are  equally  wonderful ;  long  and  sharp  like  a 
sword-blade,  flat  and  oval  like  a  griddle,  circular  as 
a  ball  and  covered  with  sharp  thorns,  or  round  like  a 
cane  and  mottled  as  a  snake.  Next  come  the  vege- 
tables and  fruits  —  I  have  described  them  as  I  saw 
them  at  other  islands,  but  Martinique  seemed  to 
have  gathered  from  all  the  islands  and  added  special- 


136  CRUISING  AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

ties  of  her  own.  The  sellers  were  chiefly  women, 
who  squatted  on  their  heels  among  their  wares, 
while  the  restless  many-colored  crowd  wound  about 
among  them,  making  a  kaleidoscope  at  which  one 
was  never  weary  of  looking.  It  was  a  change  from 
this  scene  of  clatter  and  confusion  to  the  quiet  of  the 
botanical  garden.  This  is  about  a  mile  from  the 
town,  and  its  natural  features  are  sufficient  to  make 
it  attractive.  It  lies  along  and  within  a  ravine, 
whose  lofty  trees  and  tumbling  water  and  deep  quiet 
pools,  and  masses  of  vines  and  creepers,  and  confused 
assemblies  of  ferns  and  orchids  and  miniature  palms, 
combine  to  give  dense  shade  and  coolness,  and  a 
sense  of  repose,  which  are  most  grateful  after  the 
glare  and  heat  and  noise  of  the  market-place  and  the 
city  streets.  There  are  thickets  of  bamboo,  and 
beautiful  tamarinds,  and  wide-spreading  ceiba  trees, 
palms  and  palmistes  in  endless  variety,  great  lianas 
and  swinging  vines,  and  parasites  coiling  around,  and 
hanging  from,  and  sitting  upon  the  tree  branches. 
The  garden  has  a  certain  amount  of  care,  and  is 
better  than  any  which  I  saw  in  the  islands  except 
those  of  the  government  houses  of  St.  Vincent  and 
Port  of  Spain,  but  with  such  a  wealth  of  resources 
and  a  tropical  climate,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  what 
wonders  and  beauties  might  be  developed. 

Leaving  the  garden,  we  climbed  Morne  Rouge  over 


ISLE  DE   MARTINIQUE  137 

well-made  roads,  with  solid  stone  bridges  and  care- 
fully prepared  water  channels  in  case  of  floods.  The 
views  were  of  indescribable  loveliness,  combining  the 
grandeur  of  the  mountains,  the  rich  and  varied 
greenery  of  the  hills  and  cultivated  slopes,  and  the 
deep  blue  of  the  distant  sea.  Now  and  then  a  cloud 
of  mist  swept  for  a  few  moments  like  a  veil  over  the 
face  of  beauty,  only  to  reveal  after  its  passage  a 
scene  fresher  and  fairer  than  before.  High  above 
the  neat  and  pretty  villas,  which  form  the  village  of 
Morne  Rouge,  is  a  steep  slope  which  has  been 
arranged  for  pilgrimage  purposes.  On  the  mountain 
side  a  succession  of  little  chapels  has  been  built  — 
each  of  which  contains  some  representation  of  the 
Passion  of  Our  Lord.  It  is  a  Roman  Catholic 
"  Calvaire,"  and  pious  Romanists  climb  the  mountain, 
sometimes  on  their  knees,  saying  a  prayer  at  each 
shrine.  It  is  easier  to  get  up  with  such  intervals 
than  to  try  to  walk  profanely  to  the  top  without 
resting.  Even  superstition  has  its  compensations, 
and  it  may  be  added  that  the  view  on  a  fine  day  is 
enough  recompense  for  the  climb.  The  French 
islanders  are  better  Christians  after  their  kind,  than 
the  other  inhabitants,  but  the  amount  of  ignorant 
devotion  to  shrines  and  images  is  large.  Besides 
the  numerous  little  idols  scattered  along  the  roads, 
there  is  an  immense  "Christ"  overlooking  the  bay, 


138  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

and  on  Morne  d'Orange,  south  of  the  city,  stands  a 
huge  white  "  Virgin  of  Sailors." 

But  there  is  one  statue  on  Martinique  which  every 
traveller  desires  to  see;  the  statue  of  Josephine 
in  the  Savane  at  Fort  de  France.  A  little  steamer 
runs  daily  from  St.  Pierre  to  Fort  de  France. 
The  town  stands  on  a  level  plain  and  consists  of 
wooden  houses  built  along  wide  streets  crossing 
at  right  angles.  The  park  lies  near  the  shore,  and 
contains  long  rows  of  mango  and  tamarind  trees, 
which  bend  over  broad  promenades.  Enclosed  in 
this  double  row  of  trees  is  the  Savane,  and  there, 
encircled  by  majestic  palms,  fronting  the  sea,  but 
with  the  face  turned  towards  the  valley  where 
she  was  born,  stands  this  beautiful  memorial  to  one 
of  the  loveliest,  and  noblest,  and  most  unfortunate 
women  who  ever  lived.  The  family  history  has 
recently  been  given  by  M.  Frederic  Masson  in  the 
Revue  de  Pans,  from  which  the  following  facts 
are  translated.  Mr.  Ober  published  essentially  the 
same  statement,  in  his  book  upon  the  Caribbees. 

In  1726  there  came  to  Martinique  a  noble  of 
Blaisois,  named  Gaspard-Joseph  Tascher  de  la 
Pagerie.  He  belonged  to  an  ancient  and  formerly 
very  powerful  family,  but  when  Gaspard-Joseph 
landed  in  the  West  Indies  the  fortunes  of  his  race 
had  very  much  declined.  He  took  good  care,  how- 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  139 

ever,  to  have  his  claim  to  noble  descent  fully 
established.  His  sons  obtained  places  at  Court, 
but  the  eldest  preferred  to  live  at  Martinique  and 
obtained  a  subaltern  position  in  the  Royal  Marines 
stationed  at  Martinique.  In  1755,  when  a  new 
war  had  broken  out  between  France  and  England, 
the  king  sent  to  Martinique,  as  governor  of  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  one  Francois  de  Beauharnais, 
a  gentleman  who  had  held  high  positions  in  France. 
Exactly  how  it  came  about  no  one  seems  to  know, 
but  the  Taschers,  poverty-stricken  and  without  influ- 
ence, managed  to  raise  the  fortunes  of  the  family 
through  their  women,  who  established  themselves 
in  the  good  graces  of  the  new  governor. 

M.  de  Tascher's  three  daughters  married  well,  and 
his  son  also  made  a  good  match  through  M.  de  Beau- 
harnais, for  Mile.  Rose-Claire  Des  Vergers  de  Sanois 
belonged  to  one  of  the  richest  and  most  influential 
colonial  families.  Young  Gaspard-Joseph  proved 
himself  worthy  of  the  good  graces  of  the  governor ; 
he  distinguished  himself  with  conspicuous  bravery 
when  the  English  made  a  descent  upon  the  island 
in  1763.  On  the  23d  of  June  in  that  year  his  wife 
was  delivered  of  a  girl,  which,  five  weeks  later,  was 
christened  Marie- Joseph-Rose.  This  was  Josephine. 
Between  1761  and  1791  six  different  priests  held 
the  parish  of  Trois-Flets,  and  this  assisted  in  giv- 


140  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARlBBEES 

ing  credence  to  the  later  rumors  that  Josephine's 
birth  could  not  be  proved  by  the  parish  registers. 
But  there  is  no  possible  doubt  either  of  her  iden- 
tity or  of  the  exact  date  of  her  birth.  In  1766  a 
terrible  storm  destroyed  the  plantation  at  Trois- 
Flets ;  it  took  M.  de  Tascher  thirty  years  to  obtain 
the  means  for  rebuilding  his  house,  and  thus 
Josephine  passed  her  childhood  in  and  around  the 
sugar-house,  the  only  building  which  withstood  the 
storm,  and  in  which  the  family  had  established 
themselves.  At  the  age  of  ten  she  was  sent  to 
the  Convent  of  the  Dames-de-la-Providence,  at  Fort 
Royal,  where  she  remained  until  she  was  fifteen. 
She  was  an  accomplished  coquette  even  then ;  Cap- 
tain Tercier,  then  stationed  with  his  regiment  at 
Martinique,  flatters  himself  that  she  was  not  quite 
indifferent  in  his  presence,  and  a  young  English- 
ma.n  who  rose  afterward  to  high  honors  loved  her 
so  much  that  he  never  married  because  she  refused 
him. 

Madame  Revandin,  Josephine's  aunt,  had  gone  to 
France  with  M.  de  Beauharnais,  over  whom  she 
exercised  undue  influence.  Madame  Revandin  made 
up  her  mind  that  the  Taschers  de  la  Pagerie  should 
profit  by  her  good  fortune.  Why  not  marry  young 
Alexander,  the  son  of  the  Marquis  de  Beauharnais, 
to  one  of  her  nieces?  Influenced  as  he  was,  the 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  141 

marquis  writes,  on  behalf  of  his  son,  to  M.  Tascher 
for  the  hand  of  one  of  his  daughters.  Originally 
it  was  intended  to  many  Josephine's  younger  sister, 
Catherine-De'sire'e,  to  Alexander  Beauharnais,  but 
the  young  lady's  death  intervened.  Josephine, 
then,  was  sent  to  France,  and  Madame  Revandin 
spent  twenty  thousand  francs  on  the  girl's  trous- 
seau. Alexander  was  not  very  enthusiastic  about 
the  marriage,  but  the  bans  were  published  and  the 
marriage  took  place  within  a  month  after  the  bride 
had  landed. 

The  union  was  not  a  happy  one.  Alexander  did 
not  attempt  to  introduce  his  wife  to  society,  and 
did  nothing  to  assist  her  in  completing  her  scant 
education  and  to  improve  her  provincial  ways.  He 
complains,  too,  that  she  had  the  most  absurd  ideas 
of  what  conjugal  affection  should  be  like,  required 
too  much  attention,  and  was  jealous.  Young  Beau- 
harnais—  he  was  only  nineteen  at  the  time  of  his 
marriage  —  travelled  to  divert  himself,  and  left  his 
wife  at  home.  He  quarrelled  with  his  wife's  rela- 
tives, and  accused  Josephine  of  infidelity,  and  the 
latter  retired  to  the  Abbey  of  Panthemont,  a  con- 
vent which  served  as  a  kind  of  refuge  for  wives 
who  were  separated  from  their  husbands,  or  were 
about  to  obtain  a  separation.  Here  she  was  for  the 
first  time  made  acquainted  with  the  wiles  of  society. 


142  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAKIBBEES 

Later  M.  de  Beauharnais  rendered  the  most  com- 
plete apologies,  acknowledging  that  Josephine  was 
not  at  fault,  and  as  a  reconciliation  seemed  impos- 
sible, a  separation  was  agreed  upon.  She  returned, 
with  her  little  daughter,  Hortense,  to  the  scenes 
of  her  childhood,  and  thus  she  wrote  of  this  peace- 
ful time  so  soon  to  be  exchanged  for  a  life  as  excit- 
ing and  wonderful  as  any  that  woman  ever  knew: 
"Nature  has  strewn  the  banks  of  our  rivers  with 
flowers,  and  planted  the  freshest  forests  around 
our  fertile  borders.  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation 
to  breathe  the  pure  aromatic  odors  wafted  on  the 
zephyr's  wings.  I  love  to  hide  myself  in  the  green 
woods  that  skirt  our  dwelling;  there  I  tread  on 
flowers  which  exhale  a  perfume  as  rich  as  that  of 
the  orange  grove,  and  more  grateful  to  the  senses. 
How  many  charms  has  this  retreat  for  one  in  my 
situation."  From  this  seclusion  she  came  forth  to 
ascend  the  throne  of  France  and  to  adorn  with  her 
matchless  charms  the  most  brilliant  court  in  the 
world.  The  keenest  writer  of  fiction  could  not 
have  conceived  of  anything  more  romantic  than 
the  making  of  this  charming  spot  the  birthplace 
of  so  distinguished  a  woman. 

There  was  another  illustrious  Frenchwoman 
whose  early  years  were  passed  in  Martinique,  who 
swayed  for  years  the  destinies  of  France.  Madame 


ISLE  DE  MARTINIQUE  143 

de  Maintenon,  known  before  as  Madame  Scarron, 
grew  up  as  Frai^oise  d'Aubignd  in  this  beautiful 
island.  The  story  of  her  coming  is  romantic.  Her 
parents  were  Protestants,  living  in  Northern  France, 
and  hoping  to  improve  their  waning  fortune  and 
enjoy  more  religious  freedom,  removed  to  Martinique 
after  the  birth  of  their  daughter.  Soon  after  sailing 
the  infant  D'Aubign^  became  very  ill  and  apparently 
died,  and  the  captain  insisted  upon  speedy  burial  in 
the  sea  and  preparations  were  duly  made.  After  some 
slight  religious  services  just  as  the  body  was  about 
to  be  thrown  overboard,  the  mother,  weeping  vio- 
lently, rushed  forward  and  begged  for  one  more 
look  at  her  child,  and  passionately  kissing  the 
remains,  she  discovered  some  faint  signs  of  life. 
The  body  was  taken  back  to  the  cabin  and  efforts 
for  resuscitation  were  crowned  with  success,  and 
recovery  was  rapid. 

Great  was  the  joy  of  the  pious  parents,  and  earnest 
and  devout  their  thanksgiving  over  recovering  from 
the  jaws  of  death  their  darling  one.  How  little  they 
knew  what  they  were  doing !  This  Protestant  child, 
this  child  of  prayer  and  faith,  lived  to  be  the  scourge 
of  the  church  of  her  parents;  for  few  doubt  that 
Madame  de  Maintenon  was  the  chief  agent  in  induc- 
ing Louis  XIV.  to  revoke  the  edict  of  Nantes  and 
inaugurate  a  persecution  of  untold  blood  and  vie- 


144  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAKLBBEES 

lence    and    horror,    which    nearly    obliterated    the 
Protestant  name  from  the  fair  land  of  France. 

With  the  memory  of  such  great  names  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  French  Creoles  are  proud  of  their 
heritage,  and  plan  and  labor  for  its  prosperity. 


XVI 

BATTLES  AMONG  THE  ISLANDS 

BUCCANEERS    OF   THE   SPANISH    MAIN COUNT  DE   GRASSE 

AND    ADMIRAL    RODNEY A    DECISIVE    NAVAL    BATTLE 

THE    SLOOP    OF   WAR   DIAMOND    ROCK 

BEFORE  leaving  this  part  of  the  Caribbean  Sea 
we  ought  to  recall  the  naval  history  which  has  been 
enacted  among  the  Windward  Islands.  The  battles 
which  Columbus  fought  with  the  natives  were  inci- 
dental to  discovery  and  settlement ;  then  came  cruel 
wars  for  the  conquest  of  the  islands,  and  in  order  to 
grind  gold  in  one  way  or  another  out  of  the  islanders. 
The  Roman  Catholic  church  is  responsible  for  much 
of  this  early  fighting,  for  she  had  given  the  islands 
to  the  Spaniards  by  a  papal  bull,  which  no  Protestant 
adventurer  felt  bound  to  respect,  unless  it  was  more 
than  a  brutum  fulmen,  and  had  ships  and  soldiers 
behind  it.  The  freebooters  and  buccaneers  of  the 
Spanish  Main  were  the  terror  of  the  dwellers  on 
shore  as  well  as  of  all  who  sailed  the  seas.  Drake 
and  his  comrades  were  "  pirates  to  the  Spaniards  " 
so  writes  Froude,  "to  be  treated  to  a  short  shrift 
L  145 


146  CRUISING   AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

wherever  found  and  caught.  British  seamen  who 
fell  into  their  hands  were  carried  before  the  Inquisi- 
tion at  Lima  or  Carthagena  and  burnt  at  the  stake 
as  heretics."  French  privateers  seized  Tortuga  near 
St.  Domingo,  and  English,  French,  and  Spanish  all 
ravaged  the  seas  in  a  wild  anarchy. 

Then  came  the  period  of  French  occupation,  when 
nearly  every  island  of  the  Antilles  was  settled  by 
French  colonists.  Language,  religion,  customs,  were 
all  French,  and  the  impress  made  in  those  days  upon 
the  islands  has  never  been  removed,  though  all  save 
Martinique  have  passed  from  under  French  control. 
England  determined  that  the  Lesser  Antilles  should 
be  hers,  and  fierce  battles  were  fought  for  their 
possession ;  they  were  taken  and  retaken,  and  when 
the  British  under  Cornwallis  surrendered  to  Wash- 
ington at  Yorktown,  French  and  Spanish  allied  to 
drive  the  British  from  the  West  Indies.  Rodney, 
who  was  in  command  of  the  islands,  had  been 
ordered  home  to  answer  some  charges  which  political 
enemies  had  brought  against  him;  but  when  the 
news  came  that  the  Count  De  Grasse  with  his  vic- 
torious fleet  was  about  to  sail  for  Martinique,  Rodney 
was  hurried  back  to  his  station  with  all  the  ships 
that  he  could  muster.  He  arrived  not  a  day  too 
soon. 

We  shall  let  Froude  tell  the  story  of  the  naval 


BATTLES   AMONG   THE  ISLANDS  147 

battle,  one  of  the  severest  in  English  annals,  of 
which  he  says  that  if  it  had  been  lost  to  England, 
"  Gibraltar  would  have  fallen  and  Hastings's  Indian 
empire  would  have  melted  into  air."  De  Grasse  had 
refitted  in  the  Martinique  dock-yards.  He  had  the 
finest  ship  then  floating  on  the  seas  for  his  flag-ship, 
and  his  navy  seemed  invincible,  a  fleet  with  which 
he  did  not  believe  that  even  Rodney  would  venture 
to  contend.  "  He  held  all  the  Antilles  except  St. 
Lucia  —  Tobago,  Grenada,  the  Grenadines,  St.  Vin- 
cent, Martinique,  Dominica,  Guadeloupe,  Montserrat, 
Nevis,  Antigua,  and  St.  Kitt's  —  a  string  of  gems, 
each  island  large  as  or  larger  than  the  Isle  of  Man, 
rising  up  with  high  volcanic  peaks  clothed  from  base 
to  crest  with  forest,  carved  into  deep  ravines  and 
fringed  with  luxuriant  plains.  In  St.  Lucia  alone, 
lying  between  St.  Vincent  and  Dominica,  the  Eng- 
lish flag  still  flew,  and  Rodney  lay  there  in  the 
harbor  at  Castries.  On  April  8,  1782,  the  signal 
came  from  the  north  end  of  the  island  that  the 
French  fleet  had  sailed.  The  air  was  light,  and 
De  Grasse  was  under  the  highlands  of  Dominica 
before  Rodney  came  up  with  him.  Both  fleets  were 
becalmed,  and  the  English  were  scattered  and  divided 
by  a  current  which  runs  between  the  islands." 
De  Grasse  failed  to  attack  as  he  should  have  done, 
and  only  fired  long  shots  which  did  considerable 


148  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

damage.  Thus  the  fleets  manoeuvred  for  two  days. 
"  On  the  night  of  the  eleventh  Rodney  made  signal 
for  the  whole  fleet  to  go  south  under  press  of  sail. 
The  French  thought  he  was  flying.  He  tacked  at 
two  in  the  morning,  and  at  daybreak  found  himself 
where  he  wished  to  be,  with  the  French  fleet  on  his 
lee  quarter.  He  had  the  advantage  of  the  wind  and 
could  force  a  battle  or  decline  it  as  he  pleased. 

"  In  number  of  ships  the  fleets  were  equal ;  in 
size  and  complement  of  crew  the  French  were 
immensely  superior,  and  besides  the  ordinary  ships' 
companies  they  had  twenty  thousand  soldiers  on 
board  who  were  to  be  used  in  the  conquest  of 
Jamaica.  .  .  .  With  clear  daylight  the  signal  to 
engage  was  flying  from  the  mast-head  of  the  Formid- 
able, Rodney's  ship.  At  seven  in  the  morning, 
April  12,  1782,  the  whole  fleet  bore  down  obliquely 
on  the  French  line,  cutting  it  directly  in  two.  Rod- 
ney led  in  person.  Having  passed  through  and 
through  and  broken  up  their  order,  he  tacked  again, 
still  keeping  the  wind.  The  French,  thrown  into 
confusion,  were  unable  to  reform,  and  the  battle 
resolved  itself  into  a  number  of  separate  engagements 
in  which  the  English  had  the  choice  of  position. 

"  Rodney  in  passing  through  the  enemy's  lines  the 
first  time  had  exchanged  broadsides  with  the  G-lo- 
rieux,  a  seventy-four  at  close  range.  He  had  shot 


BATTLES   AMONG  THE  ISLANDS  149 

away  her  masts  and  bowsprit,  and  left  her  a  bare  hull, 
her  flag  however  still  flying,  being  nailed  to  a  splin- 
tered spar.  So  he  left  her  unable  at  least  to  stir, 
and  after  he  had  gone  about  came  himself  yard-arm 
to  yard-arm  with  the  superb  Ville  de  Paris,  the  pride 
of  France,  the  largest  ship  in  the  then  world,  which 
De  Grasse  commanded  in  person.  One  by  one  the 
French  ships  struck  their  flags  or  fought  on  till  they 
foundered  and  went  down.  The  Ville  de  Paris  sur- 
rendered last,  fighting  desperately  after  hope  was 
gone,  till  her  masts  were  so  shattered  that  they  could 
not  bear  a  sail  and  her  decks  above  and  below  were 
littered  over  with  mangled  limbs.  De  Grasse  gave 
up  his  sword  to  Rodney  on  the  Formidable'1 's  quarter- 
deck. The  gallant  G-lorieux,  unable  to  fly,  hauled 
down  her  flag,  but  not  till  the  undisabled  remnants 
of  her  crew  were  too  few  to  throw  the  dead  into  the 
sea.  Other  ships  took  fire  and  blew  up.  Half  the 
French  fleet  were  either  taken  or  sunk ;  the  rest 
crawled  away  for  the  time,  most  of  them  to  be  picked 
up  afterwards  like  crippled  birds.  On  that  mem- 
orable day  was  the  English  empire  saved.  The 
American  colonies  were  lost ;  but  England  kept  her 
West  Indies."  This  naval  battle,  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  sovereignty  in  the  Lesser  Antilles. 

Between  Martinique  and  St.  Lucia,  but  close   to 
Martinique,  there  is  a  solitary  rock,  precipitous  and 


150  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

apparently  inaccessible,  which  claims  our  atten- 
tion. It  lies  a  mile  south  of  the  promontory  known 
as  Morne  du  Diinant,  and  is  five  hundred  and 
seventy-five  feet  in  height  to  its  level  top.  There 
the  English  admiral,  Sir  Thomas  Hood,  once  landed, 
and  hoisted  a  garrison  of  dare-devil  sailors  with  guns 
and  provisions  to  the  top  of  the  rock.  The  crag  was 
christened  "His  Majesty's  sloop-of-war  Diamond 
Rock  ";  and  for  nine  months,  from  this  sea-girt  cita- 
del, the  British  seamen  startled  the  vessels  of  France 
and  Spain,  as  they  swept  the  neighboring  seas  with 
the  guns  of  this  strange  man-of-war.  The  crew  of 
Diamond  Rock  were  finally  compelled  to  yield  to 
starvation  what  they  never  could  have  been  obliged 
to  surrender  by  force  of  arms,  and  the  rock  has  ever 
since  been  carefully  guarded  against  capture  by  the 
Frenchmen  of  Martinique. 


XVII 

ST.   LUCIA 

THE  BEST  LANDING  PLACE   IN  THE  CARIBBEES TOWN   OF 

CASTRIES THE    LOFTY    AND     WEIRD     PITONS TALES 

AND    TRADITIONS 

LEAVING  Martinique  after  midnight,  the  early 
morning  found  us  coasting  along  a  most  beautiful 
island,  with  forest-clad  hills  and  deep,  dark  valleys 
lying  between.  The  color  effects  were  as  wonderful 
here  as  at  Dominica.  The  near  slopes  were  covered 
with  rich  yellow-green  fields  of  sugar-cane,  the  lofty 
peaks  beyond  were  blue  and  purple,  and  the  sea, 
which  was  hardly  ruffled  by  the  morning  breeze, 
was  like  mother-of-pearl  with  streaks  of  silver  where 
the  currents  changed  its  shining  surface ;  far  in  the 
distance  twin  peaks  were  dimly  seen  through  the 
haze  above  the  nearer  mountains,  which  on  approach 
proved  to  be  the  two  Pitons,  the  most  remarkable 
of  all  the  strange  creations  which  we  saw  in  this 
region  of  subterranean  and  volcanic  forces. 

St.  Lucia  is  the  largest  of  the  islands  that  we 
visited,  with  the  exception  of  Guadeloupe  and 

151 


152  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEBS 

Trinidad.  It  has  an  area  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  acres,  a  coast  line  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  and  is  forty-two  miles  long  and  twenty  miles 
broad.  From  its  lofty  mountains,  watered  by  fre- 
quent rains,  numerous  streams  descend  to  the  ocean ; 
and  at  their  mouths  there  are  many  bays  and  road- 
steads for  vessels.  The  island  lies  in  13  degrees 
50  minutes  north  latitude  and  60  degrees  58  min- 
utes west  longitude.  It  has  between  forty  and 
fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  the  vast  majority  of 
whom  are  blacks.  At  the  northeastern  extremity 
of  the  island  is  a  high  cliff  detached  from  the 
mainland,  where  Admiral  Rodney,  a  century  ago, 
established  a  signal  station,  and  from  which  he 
watched  the  manoeuvres  of  the  French  fleet  whose 
headquarters  were  at  Martinique.  Passing  through 
a  narrow  strait  between  two  lofty  headlands,  the 
steamer  entered  one  of  the  best  harbors  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  was  soon  alongside  a  fine  stone  wharf. 
This  was  the  only  place  during  our  voyage  among 
the  Caribbees,  where  we  were  able  to  land  from  a 
gang-plank  and  without  the  service  of  a  small  boat. 
Large  sums  of  money  have  been  spent  here  by  the 
British  government  to  deepen  the  harbor,  and  make 
the  place  a  coaling  station  for  the  British  navy  and 
for  the  Royal  mail  steamers.  Here  is  the  town  of 
Castries,  named  in  honor  of  the  French  marshal 


ST.   LUCIA  153 

De  Castries  in  1785,  when  the  French  held  the 
place. 

The  ruins  of  an  ancient  fortress  crown  the  heights 
of  Morne  Fortune  upon  the  southern  side  of  the 
town,  and  a  few  British  soldiers  showed  us  by  their 
presence  to  whom  the  island  now  belongs. 

Castries  has  been  built  upon  made  ground,  at  the 
foot  of  the  heights,  and  is  occupied  chiefly  by  blacks, 
who  live  in  long  rows  of  little  wooden  houses  with 
corrugated  iron  roofs.  There  is  a  handsome  market, 
neat  and  well  supplied;  a  pretty  botanical  garden 
with  a  rich  variety  of  trees  and  tropical  plants,  with 
its  ground  full  of  snake  holes;  and  a  comfortable 
reading  room  and  library  of  about  a  thousand  vol- 
umes. The  people  speak  English,  and  the  whites 
all  live  upon  the  hills  around  the  harbor ;  for  the  low 
ground  is  unhealthy,  and  has  a  bad  reputation  for 
fevers. 

Here,  as  at  St.  Thomas,  we  saw  women  coaling 
the  vessels.  Their  short  skirts  and  naked  arms 
and  shoulders  revealed  brawny  limbs  and  chests 
on  which  the  muscles  stood  out  as  on  a  sculptor's 
bronze  when,  with  the  great  baskets  of  coal  upon 
their  heads,  they  mounted  the  gang-planks  of  the 
vessels  at  the  pier.  They  sang  a  monotonous  chant 
as  they  worked  in  the  grime  and  dust  of  the 
coal  breakers  or  marched  in  single  file  across  the 


154  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

wharf  to  throw  in  their  loads.  Even  the  coal  dust 
could  hardly  make  them  blacker  than  they  came 
from  nature's  hand,  and  there  was  little  except 
their  arrowy  uprightness  to  differentiate  them  from 
the  animals  among  which  they  labored.  We  were 
not  disposed  to  linger  at  Castries,  though  we  had 
invitations  to  visit  in  the  island.  We  were  becoming 
rather  impatient  for  a  more  extended  civilization 
than  this  island  afforded,  and  were  already  thinking 
of  Barbados  and  Trinidad. 

The  voyage  from  Castries  to  St.  Vincent  was  one 
of  our  finest  experiences.  We  coasted  the  leeward 
side  of  St.  Lucia  till  sundown,  watching  peak  after 
peak  of  a  superbly  foliated  mountain  chain  with 
admiration,  till  the  climax  came  in  the  wonderful 
Pitons,  two  immense  cones  2720  and  2680  feet 
in  sheer  height  from  the  water's  edge.  The  loftiest 
one  seemed  to  be  almost  as  difficult  of  ascent  (except 
for  its  ice)  as  the  last  three  thousand  feet  of  the 
Matterhorn  in  the  Zermatt  valley,  which  it  much 
resembles  in  shape.  But  their  forms  change  as  the 
vessel  passes  by  these  wonderful  peaks,  and  so  also  do 
their  colors  change  under  the  varying  atmosphere. 
At  their  foot  a  beautiful  bay  opens,  where  a  green 
plantation  and  the  white  houses  of  a  little  hamlet 
relieve  the  severity  of  the  landscape.  Above  and 
behind  this  bay,  however,  rises  the  sombre  mountain 


ST.   LtTCIA  155 

of  the  Souffriere,  a  smoking  sulphur  vent  whose 
blue  fumes  mingle  with  gray  mists  and  rain-clouds, 
which  are  forever  hovering  about  the  mountains. 
No  description  can  do  justice  to  the  fantastic  and 
awe-inspiring  picture  which  these  towering  masses 
present.  Even  photographs  fail  to  convey  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  scene,  but  the  landscape  painter  has 
here,  as  elsewhere  among  these  islands,  a  noble 
subject,  in  form  and  color  unique  and  wonderful, 
for  his  study  and  reproduction  upon  the  canvas. 
History  or  tradition  tells  a  story  of  three  sailors 
who  tried  to  climb  these  awful  steeps,  watched  with 
breathless  interest  by  their  less  adventurous  com- 
rades. As  they  neared  the  summit  one  and  another 
were  seen  to  fall  suddenly,  as  if  stricken  by  an 
enemy,  and  the  third  also,  just  as  he  was  waving 
the  flag  in  triumph  on  the  summit,  fell  backwards 
a  corpse.  These  repeated  disasters  were  ascribed  to 
the  deadly  bite  of  the  fer-de-lance,  that  dreaded 
serpent  which  infested  St.  Lucia  in  past  years,  but 
whose  descendants  have  been  nearly  extirpated  by 
the  mongoose,  which  is  now  in  turn  voted  a  nuisance 
by  the  planters  of  the  island.  A  practical  view  of 
the  tale,  with  the  Pitons  in  sight,  lessened  our  faith 
in  the  tradition  of  the  climbing  and  bitten  sailors. 
Even  with  the  aid  of  a  powerful  field-glass,  it  would 
be  quite  impossible  to  look  through  the  dense 


156  CRUISING  AMOKG  TflE  CARIBBEES 

thickets  and  watch  the  progress  of  any  climber  on 
the  seaward  side  of  the  Pitons ;  and  so,  though  the 
tale  is  illustrative  of  the  reckless  courage  of  the  sea- 
men of  former  times,  and  the  dreadful  enemies  which 
lay  in  wait  for  early  travellers  in  St.  Lucia,  we  can 
only  offer  it  as  a  bit  of  sensational  literature  with 
rather  a  slight  foundation  of  fact. 

St.  Lucia  has,  however,  a  wonderful  record  of 
battles  on  land  and  sea  which  well  attests  the  brav- 
ery of  the  peoples  who  fought  for  supremacy  in  the 
Spanish  Main  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  In  1605  sixty-seven  colonists  landed  at 
St.  Lucia  and  took  possession  in  the  name  of  James 
the  First  of  England.  Two  months  later  the  Caribs 
drove  them  into  the  sea.  It  was  more  than  thirty 
years  before  another  attempt  at  settlement  was 
made  by  a  British  colony  and  with  the  same  result. 
In  1642  the  king  of  France,  who  had  assumed  the 
sovereignty  of  a  large  part  of  the  West  Indies,  sold 
St.  Lucia  to  two  Frenchmen  for  about  eighty  thou- 
sand dollars.  These  Frenchmen  established  a  col- 
ony, which  was  attacked  and  conquered  in  1664 
by  a  party  of  English  from  Barbados ;  but  the 
treaty  of  Breda  gave  the  island  back  to  France. 
St.  Lucia  changed  hands  many  times,  and  was  also 
a  neutral  ground  during  the  next  fifty  years. 
From  1756  to  1782,  France  and  England  fought 


ST.   LTJCIA  157 

again  and  again  for  the  possession  of  St.  Lucia. 
The  greatest  and  most  decisive  conflict  was  on 
April  12,  1782,  a  naval  battle  which  I  have  already 
described,  when  Admiral  Rodney  almost  annihilated 
the  French  fleet  and  took  De  Grasse,  the  French 
admiral,  a  prisoner;  for  which  service  he  was  made 
a  peer  of  the  realm  and  received  a  pension  of  two 
thousand  pounds  for  himself  and  his  heirs.  The 
French  government  was  restored  by  treaty  in  1784, 
and  under  the  Directory,  in  February,  1794,  Gen- 
eral Ricard,  the  French  governor  of  St.  Lucia, 
abolished  negro  slavery  throughout  the  French 
Antilles,  forty  years  before  English  emancipation  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  seventy  years  sooner  than  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  our  own  republic.  Strange 
as  it  seems,  this  blow  for  freedom  was  struck  from 
Paris  by  the  leaders  of  the  French  Revolution. 

Bloody  battles  continued  to  be  fought  between 
the  French  and  English  for  the  ,  ownership  of  St. 
Lucia,  from  1794  to  1803.  What  the  English  gained 
by  fighting,  was  often  given  back  to  the  French 
by  treaty.  In  the  famous  battles  of  1796,  the 
negroes  united  with  the  French  and  made  a  gallant 
struggle,  for  they  were  fighting  to  retain  the  free- 
dom which  the  French  had  given  them.  It  was, 
however,  in  vain,  and  the  island,  after  more  than 
a  century  and  a  half  of  warfare  for  its  possession, 


158  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

became  English  soil.  The  English  soon  lost  all 
interest  in  what  had  cost  them  so  dear,  and  only 
within  a  few  years  has  the  English  government 
awaked  to  the  value  and  importance  of  St.  Lucia 
among  her  West  Indian  colonies.  It  is  a  most  val- 
uable island  with  fine  harbors,  full  of  tropical  pro- 
ductions, and  with  sulphur  mines  in  the  Souffriere 
which  could  supply  the  powder  factories  of  the  world. 
Those  who  are  interested  in  natural  phenomena 
should  visit  these  volcanoes  and  read  in  Humboldt's 
"Personal  Narrative,"  book  fifth,  his  descriptions 
of  the  Antilles  and  their  natural  history,  and  espe- 
cially those  pages  which  treat  of  the  great  erup- 
tions of  1812,  which  culminated  in  the  tremendous 
outbreak  of  the  Souffriere  of  St.  Vincent  —  whither 
now  the  Madiana  had  set  her  course. 


XVIII 
ST.  VINCENT  AND   THE   GRENADINES 

A    SUPERB    AMPHITHEATRE  —  OUTBURST    OF  A  VOLCANO  — 
MAKING    ARROWROOT  —  BARGAINING    FOR    A     BABY  — 
A    LITTLE    ARCHIPELAGO 

RUNNING  southward  through  the  night,  we  crossed 
the  channel  south  of  St.  Lucia,  and  in  the  morning 
reached  the  next  link  in  the  chain  of  the  Caribbee 
Islands,  and  came  to  anchor  off  St.  Vincent.  It  has 
been  said  that  four  islands  among  the  Caribbees 
realize  one's  ideals  —  Guadeloupe,  Dominica,  Mar- 
tinique, and  St.  Vincent.  The  first  is  vast,  grand,  and 
gloomy;  the  second  sombre  in  its  mountains,  but 
breaking  out  into  smiling  tracts  of  cultivated  land; 
the  third  combines  features  of  the  first  two,  and  adds 
the  element  of  a  large  and  picturesque  population  ; 
while  St.  Vincent  has  all  the  natural  wonders  and 
beauties  of  the  other  three,  and  a  certain  air  of  deli- 
cate culture  which  is  entirely  its  own. 

We  were  anchored  in  a  lovely  bay  with  a  fort 
crowning  the  headland  on  our  right,  and  facing 
Kingstown.  The  town  is  situated  in  a  superb 
amphitheatre  which  rises  from  the  water  with  its  red- 

159 


160  CKUISING  AMONG  THE   CAKIBBEES 

roofed  houses  showing  through  palm  groves,  and  a 
few  fine  stone  structures,  among  which  are  churches 
of  five  denominations  of  Christians.  Behind  these 
buildings  are  the  botanical  gardens  and  the  governor's 
house  overlooking  all  the  town.  St.  Vincent  is  a 
single  peak,  with  no  outlying  rocks  or  islets.  It  is 
larger  than  it  seems,  being  seventeen  miles  long  and 
ten  miles  broad,  with  an  area  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-one  square  miles  and  a  population  of  nearly 
fifty  thousand.  A  mountain  ridge  divides  the  island, 
and  here,  at  the  height  of  a  mile,  is  the  vast  crater  of 
Morne  Garon,  which,  was  the  scene  of  a  tremendous 
eruption  in  1812,  when  the  earthquakes  which  for 
two  years  had  terrified  the  South  American  coast 
and  the  West  India  Islands,  had  culminated  in  an 
explosion  which  at  Caracas  buried  in  a  moment  ten 
thousand  people ;  wrought  ruin  along  the  whole  line 
of  the  Andes,  and  ended  in  an  awful  outburst  from 
the  Souffri£re  of  St.  Vincent,  whose  dust  darkened 
the  sun  for  an  entire  day,  and  spread  over  a  hundred 
miles  of  sea  and  land.  This  eruption  changed  the 
appearance  of  the  island,  and  seemed  to  have  de- 
stroyed its  eastern  end.  The  present  crater,  formed 
at  that  time,  is  half  a  mile  in  diameter  and  five  hun- 
dred feet  deep.  The  old  crater  is  now  a  beautiful 
blue  lake,  walled  in  by  ragged  cliffs  to  a  height  of 
eight  hundred  feet. 


ST.   VINCENT  AND   THE   GRENADINES  161 

But  the  devastation  of  April,  1812,  has  not  been 
repeated.  The  volcano  did  its  work  and  gave  vent 
to  the  hidden  forces  of  a  continent,  and  beneficent 
Nature  has  repaired  the  ruin  and  made  the  island 
more  beautiful  than  ever.  We  landed  from  boats  at 
a  little  wharf  built  out  from  the  sandy  beach  which 
curves  from  the  northern  headland  around  to  the 
southern  promontory,  and  found  Kingstown  a  neat 
and  pleasant  town.  Some  of  the  party  made  friends 
with  residents,  and  were  invited  to  bring  their  pa- 
jamas and  make  an  interval  in  the  voyage  under  the 
palm  and  cinnamon  trees  with  tropical  company  and 
its  delights ;  but  they  were  loyal  to  their  companions 
and,  though  sorely  tempted,  followed  the  example  of 
Ulysses  without  being  tied  to  the  mast  or  having 
their  ears  plugged  with  wool  after  the  style  of  the 
Homeric  hero. 

We  found  that  the  stone  buildings  along  the  sea- 
shore were  occupied  by  a  police  station  and  govern- 
ment stores.  Three  streets,  broad  and  lined  with 
good  houses,  are  laid  out  fronting  the  water,  and 
these  are  intersected  at  right  angles  by  other  streets 
which  run  back  to  the  foot-hills,  from  which  roads 
lead  into  the  mountain  regions  and  around  the  shore 
to  the  north  and  south.  Along  these  streets  are 
rows  of  palms  whose  columnar  stems  are  crowned 
with  waving  fronds,  so  that  the  town  lies  in  a  beauti- 


162  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

ful  crescent  leaning  back  against  the  verdurous  hills, 
itself  half-hidden  in  a  lovely  grove,  while  far  above 
and  beyond  rises  the  dark  mountain  around  whose 
torn  and  rent  edges  the  clouds  are  ever  floating. 
Froude  was  reminded  of  Norway  by  the  scene,  and  it 
is  true  that  St.  Vincent  has  some  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  those  bright  wooden-built  towns  which  the 
traveller  finds  upon  the  steep  sides  of  the  dark  fjords 
of  that  northern  land,  and  here  nature  is  so  lavish  of 
her  treasures  that  the  sentiment  of  grandeur  is  quite 
overcome  by  the  softer  beauties  of  the  landscape.  In 
the  centre  of  the  picture  as  seen  from  the  roadstead 
is  the  handsome  government  house.  It  stands  at  the 
highest  point  of  a  richly  stocked  and  well-cultivated 
botanical  garden,  where  we  saw  plantations  of  pine- 
apples, the  cinnamon,  clove,  camphor  and  nutmeg, 
mahogany,  ceiba,  cottonwood  and  many  wildwood 
trees,  and  a  great  variety  of  plants  and  flowers.  The 
main  room  of  the  government  house  is  a  wide  hall 
reaching  from  front  to  rear,  furnished  and  used  for 
both  salon  and  dining-rooms,  with  bedrooms  opening 
out  on  either  side.  Beyond  these  is  a  large  and  deep 
tank  for  bathing,  and  still  further  on  are  the  ser- 
vants' offices  and  farm  buildings.  Loaded  with 
flowers  and  fruits  we  descended  to  the  town,  passing 
upon  our  way  an  arrowroot  plantation  with  its  simple 
mill.  The  root  grows  in  fields  which  are  planted 


ST.   VINCENT   AND  THE   GRENADINES  163 

as  corn  is  planted  for  fodder.  When  sufficiently 
grown  it  is  dug  up  and  carted  to  the  mill.  The 
tubers  are  there  broken  off,  ground,  washed,  and 
strained,  and  the  mass  is  allowed  to  settle  for  a  few 
days.  The  product  is  then  placed  on  wire-work 
frames  of  different-sized  meshes,  to  dry.  It  gradually 
sifts  down  from  the  coarse  upper  frame  to  the  lowest 
fine  netting,  and  by  that  time  it  has  become  dry  and 
is  ready  to  be  barrelled  and  shipped.  It  now  brings 
five  dollars  a  barrel,  or  about  eight  cents  a  pound. 
Not  many  years  ago  it  brought  from  forty  to  sixty 
cents.  This  high  price  led  many  into  the  business 
and  like  most  West  Indian  industries,  this  has  been 
overdone,  with  the  usual  result. 

We  visited  several  of  the  island  schools  and 
found  that  the  process  of  teaching  was  largely 
oral,  the  whole  class  reciting  in  unison  with  the 
teacher  and  memorizing  their  lessons.  The  chil- 
dren were,  of  course,  all  black,  and  seemed  bright 
and  attentive,  and  the  teachers  were  painstaking, 
but  education  does  not  appear  to  elevate  the  people. 
They  are  not  idle,  dissipated,  or  wicked,  but  only 
lacking  in  ambition.  Like  most  of  the  negroes  in 
the  islands,  they  prefer  to  be  governed  rather  than 
to  govern.  They  do  not  know  how  to  rule,  and 
they  do  know  how  to  serve ;  and  in  the  service  of 
a  superior  race  they  are  kindly,  and  fairly  faithful 


164  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

where  they  are  well  treated,  now  that  there  is  no 
slavery.  Their  morals  cannot  be  judged  by  the 
standard  of  white  communities,  and  it  seems  to 
be  almost  impossible  to  apply  the  notions  of  civil- 
ization to  them.  As  I  came  into  the  town,  a  number 
of  negro  women  were  sitting  in  front  of  their  cot- 
tages, while  the  naked  children  played  around. 
One  little  fellow  of  perhaps  five  years  was  carrying 
a  large  pail  upon  his  head,  followed  by  a  smaller 
child  bearing  a  cocoanut,  and  a  toddling  two-year- 
old  bringing  up  the  rear  with  an  empty  tomato  can 
neatly  balanced  on  his  growth  of  black  wool.  They 
inarched  in  file,  back  and  forth,  without  once  shak- 
ing off  their  little  burdens,  and  were  thus  learning 
to  carry  those  huge  loads  upon  their  heads  without 
mishap  or  apparent  effort,  which  never  cease  to  as- 
tonish the  traveller.  One  of  the  women  held  up 
to  me  by  one  leg  a  beautiful  specimen  of  black 
humanity,  and  in  jest  I  offered  five  francs  for  the 
child.  "  You  give  ten  and  have  him,"  was  the  un- 
expected reply,  to  which  I  at  once  demurred.  The 
mother  was  evidently  in  earnest,  and  urged :  "  Take 
him  to  New  York  and  he  grow  big  and  wait  on 
rich  gentleman ;  plenty  same  here ;  say  ten,  gentle- 
man; see  I  give  him  for  ten."  Had  it  been  a 
monkey,  I  must  have  surrendered,  but  the  risk  and 
responsibility  for  a  soul  bought  for  ten  francs  was 


ST.    VINCENT   AND  THE  GRENADINES  165 

too   much   for   me,  and  I  was  sorry  for  my  jesting 
offer. 

Our  voyage  to  the  south  ward  was  drawing  towards 
its  end.  We  steamed  from  St.  Vincent  past  the 
Grenadines,  which  are  a  group  of  long,  low  islands 
varying  from  mere  rocks  to  islands  having  an  area 
of  eight  or  ten  thousand  acres.  Most  of  them  are 
inhabited  by  a  contented  and  fairly  prosperous 
population.  Becquia  is  the  largest  and  nearest  to 
St.  Vincent.  It  is  six  miles  long  and  a  mile  wide, 
and  its  highest  hill  is  nearly  a  thousand  feet  above 
the  sea.  Balliceaux,  Battowia,  Mustique,  Canonau, 
Carriacou,  and  Union  Island  are  some  among  many 
owned  perhaps  by  one  person  or  firm.  Cattle  and 
sheep  are  raised  on  these  islands,  but  the  only  com- 
munication between  them  and  the  larger  islands  is 
by  boats.  Grenada  is  the  farthest  south  of  the 
Caribbee  Islands  and  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  the  chain.  It  is  eighteen  miles  long  and  seven 
broad,  with  lofty  and  extinct  volcanic  craters,  and 
a  picturesque  lake  more  than  two  miles  in  circum- 
ference and  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  We 
were  sorry  not  to  visit  its  capital,  Georgetown,  also 
called  St.  George's,  with  its  fine  harbor,  walled  fort, 
pretty  red-roofed  houses  on  the  hillside,  and  churches 
with  tapering  spires.  There  are  many  monkeys  in 
the  mountains  of  Grenada,  and  great  is  said  to 


166  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

be  the  sport  of  hunting  them,  and  there  is  also 
agreeable  human  society  in  the  town.  But  we 
were  bound  for  Barbados,  and  all  night  long  we 
rolled,  steaming  easterly  against  a  head  wind  and 
sea,  to  the  temporary  discomfort  of  some  of  the 
passengers.  Morning  found  us  at  anchor  in  front  of 
Bridgetown  among  a  crowd  of  vessels,  with  the  green 
and  white  island  of  Barbados  densely  dotted  with 
little  cabins  among  sugar-cane  fields,  extending  as  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach. 


XIX 
BARBADOS 

A   SCENE    OF    BUSY   LIFE  —  SWARMS   OF    PEOPLE  —  BRIDGE- 
TOWN   AND     THE     ICE     HOUSE CRISIS    IN    THE    SUGAR 

TRADE  —  BENEFICENT   EFFECTS    OF    BRITISH    RULE 

THE  winter  sky  was  cloudless,  and  the  winter  sun 
in  the  roadstead  of  Barbados  was  as  hot  as  the  July 
sun  in  New  York.  The  thermometer  in  the  shade 
marked  seventy-four  degrees  at  sunrise;  at  noon,  in 
the  sun,  it  rose  to  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and  no 
white  person  walked  in  the  streets  of  Bridgetown 
without  an  umbrella.  But  a  steady  trade  wind  blew 
from  the  ocean  all  day  long,  and  made  a  quiet  exist- 
ence in  shady  places  comfortable.  From  the  deck 
of  the  steamer  we  looked  upon  a  handsome  city 
whose  dazzling  whiteness  was  relieved  here  and 
there  by  clusters  of  green  palms,  while  beyond  lay 
undulating  fields  of  sugar-cane,  among  which  little 
cottages  were  thickly  planted.  Carlisle  bay  was 
full  of  vessels.  Great  steamers  from  Europe  and 
South  America  were  loading  and  discharging  car- 
goes into  lighters,  while  four-masted  schooners  and 

167 


168  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

other  sailing  vessels  from  the  United  States,  from 
Canada,  Denmark,  and  Norway,  lay  moored  in  the 
roads.  Our  own  White  Squadron  and  war  vessels 
of  several  European  nations  added  impressiveness 
to  the  marine  picture,  and  multitudes  of  fishing 
smacks,  with  cargoes  of  flying-fish,  skimmed  o\er 
the  dancing  waves.  Rowboats  manned  by  hajl  a 
dozen  negroes  plied  to  and  fro,  between  the  little 
artificial  harbor  where  small  vessels  could  lie  along- 
side, and  the  larger  craft  which  were  anchored  in 
the  bay. 

The  scene  was  full  of  busy  life  and  quite  in 
contrast  with  our  peaceful  and  lonely  anchorages 
for  a  month  past  at  the  beautiful  islands  on  our 
southern  course.  It  was  evident  that  we  had  come 
to  a  sort  of  maritime  exchange,  a  port  of  call  where 
goods  and  passengers  were  transshipped,  where  ves- 
sels stopped  for  mails  and  supplies,  a  centre  of  trade 
and  commerce.  Everything  bore  the  impress  of 
Great  Britain.  The  negroes  spoke  no  foreign 
patois,  but  chattered  in  pure  English;  the  boats 
were  huge  and  strong,  with  heavy  oars,  such  as  one 
seesiri  Liverpool  and  Hull;  officials  in  uniform  were 
numerous,  and  OP  landing  we  walked  over  English 
roads,  well  swept  and  watered,  and  among  shops 
and  buildings  which  reminded  us  of  a  dozen  English 
seaports.  In  an  hour  we  saw  more  white  people 


BARBADOS  169 

in  Bridgetown  than  we  had  seen  in  all  the  other 
Windward  Islands.  There  were  many  heavy  car- 
riages and  carts  in  the  streets,  most  of  which  had 
come  from  England,  with  now  and  then  a  lighter 
vehicle  which  betrayed  its  Yankee  origin.  Had  it 
not  been  for  the  throngs  of  black  people,  we  might 
have  imagined  ourselves  in  a  town  of  the  British  isles. 
But  this  feature  of  Barbadian  life  dispelled  all  such 
illusions.  There  is  no  part  of  the  British  empire, 
indeed  no  country  in  the  world,  which  is  more 
thickly  peopled  than  Barbados,  and  of  course  the 
vast  majority  of  the  people  are  blacks.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  nine-tenths  of  the  two  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants  are  of  this  race,  and  they  swarm  in  the 
streets  and  over  the  roads  and  seem  to  crowd  the 
country  with  their  cabins.  There  are  more  than  a 
thousand  people  to  every  square  mile  of  the  island, 
and  when  I  add  that  less  than  one-fifteenth  of  the 
land  is  uncultivated,  and  out  of  this  small  area  much 
must  be  deducted  for  houses  and  other  buildings, 
for  public  and  private  parks,  and  for  burial  places, 
the  crowded  condition  of  the  black  population  will 
be  apparent.  They  multiply  too  with  rapidity,  and 
they  stay  where  they  are  born.  Hence  the  ques^- 
tion  of  support  is  an  ever-present  problem.  Wages 
at  the  time  of  our  visit  were  at  the  starvation  point, 
if  there  can  be  any  such  point  in  a  tropical  country 


170  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAEIBBEES 

where  nature  does  so  much  for  man  and  requires  so 
little.  I  was  told  again  and  again,  that  day  laborers 
worked  for  a  shilling  a  day,  and  that  even  at  that 
rate  there  were  many  who  could  not  get  employment. 
With  the  terrible  depression  of  sugar,  which  is  the 
main  agricultural  product  of  the  island,  the  outlook 
for  the  laborer  is  very  gloomy.  While  I  am  writing 
these  lines  a  press  despatch  is  handed  to  me,  which 
reads  as  follows :  — 

"  The  West  Indian  sugar  trade  is  passing  through 
a  serious  crisis.  In  Barbados  the  crop  now  reaping 
is  very  far  below  the  average,  in  some  cases  less  than 
half.  Many  estates  are  in  the  hands  of  the  official 
assignee,  in  chancery,  and  the  number  is  increasing 
daily.  The  present  deplorable  condition  of  affairs  is 
regarded  generally  as  only  a  beginning.  The  colony 
is  over  populated,  money  is  scarce,  the  number  of 
unemployed  alarmingly  great,  and  the  wages  small. 
Agricultural  laborers  can  now  be  engaged  for  twenty 
cents  a  day.  Women  get  only  twelve  cents.  Thou- 
sands of  both  sexes  are  unable  to  find  employment  at 
even  these  rates.  The  government  of  Barbados  has 
taken  steps  to  assist  emigration.  It  has  sent  commis- 
sioners to  inspect  several  of  the  neighboring  colonies 
to  give  form  to  a  scheme  of  colonization.  The  news 
from  St.  Lucia  and  Trinidad  is  that  many  estates  in 
these  colonies  have  been  abandoned.  At  Antigua, 


BAKBADOS  171 

Dominica,  St.  Kitt's,  St.  Vincent,  and  generally 
through  the  Greater  and  Lesser  Antilles  the  same 
state  of  affairs  exists.  On  several  islands  public 
meetings  have  been  held  and  resolutions  have  been 
adopted  for  transmission  to  the  secretary  of  state  for 
colonies,  directing  his  attention  to  the  impending  ruin 
of  the  sugar  industry  in  the  British  West  Indies. 
The  secretary  has  been  asked  to  approach  France  and 
Germany  with  a  view  to  ending  their  system  of 
bounties  to  the  growers  of  beet  sugar  and,  failing  in 
this,  to  have  a  duty  imposed  on  all  sugars  imported 
into  England  from  the  bounty  countries." 

As  a  natural  result  of  such  hard  times,  fears  were 
expressed  of  riot  and  crime  should  this  state  of  things 
be  long  continued.  If  such  danger  exists,  I  am  bound 
to  say  that  there  were  no  visible  signs  of  a  coming 
storm.  The  streets  were  full  of  busy  crowds,  the 
markets  were  heaped  with  all  sorts  of  food  and  fruits, 
the  shops  displayed  goods  from  every  part  of  the  globe 
and  were  thronged  with  buyers,  and  the  gardens  and 
fields  were  alive  with  industrious  and  cheerful  men 
and  women.  There  were  no  anti-rent  and  labor  dem- 
onstrations with  banners  and  mottoes,  nor  gatherings 
of  sullen  and  discontented  workmen.  The  negro  lives 
by  the  day  and  is  easily  satisfied ;  and  he  has  none  of 
that  chronic  dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  order  of 
things,  which  breeds  so  much  wickedness  and  misery 


172  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

among  what  we  call  "  the  masses  "  in  our  continental 
and  highly  civilized  communities. 

Bridgetown  has  fine  public  buildings  and  many 
elegant  residences.  The  houses  are  built  of  the  lime- 
stone which  has  been  reared  by  coral  insects  over  the 
old  volcanic  formations  of  the  island.  It  is  easily 
worked,  and  so  white  that  under  the  bright  sun  there 
is  always  a  glare,  and  so  easily  pulverized  that  with 
the  prevailing  trade  winds  there  are  always  clouds  of 
dust  on  the  highways,  and  in  those  streets  which  are 
not  constantly  watered.  The  best  part  of  the  place 
is  occupied  by  the  governor,  the  bishop,  the  attor- 
ney-general, and  the  barracks  and  parade  ground  of 
the  English  troops,  but  there  are  also  several  long 
avenues  shaded  by  rows  of  palms  on  which  new  and 
pretty  villas  stand  in  richly  cultivated  gardens. 
Some  older  and  larger  residences  occupy  beautiful 
parks  adorned  with  superb  tropical  trees.  These  hand- 
some places  are  in  striking  contrast  to  the  crowded 
rows  of  negro  cabins  which  line  the  road  far  out 
towards  the  cane  fields.  A  railway  runs  across  the 
island,  the  only  one  in  the  Caribbees,  and  by  this 
conveyance  some  of  our  party  made  a  visit  to  Codring- 
ton  College,  a  long-established  and  honorable  seat  of 
learning.  On  Trafalgar  Square  stand  a  small  monu- 
ment to  Nelson  and  a  big  banyan  tree  which  rivals 
in  size  and  age  the  one  in  the  park  at  Basse  Terre  on 


BARBADOS  173 

the  island  of  St.  Kitt's,  though  its  position  in  a 
crowded  city  square  makes  it  appear  inferior  to  the 
Kittefonian  tree. 

The  great  resort  for  travellers  is  the  Ice  House,  a 
spacious  hotel  whose  lower  story  is  devoted  to  shops, 
and  its  second  floor  to  dining  and  public  rooms. 
Here,  meals  in  which  flying-fish  form  a  prominent 
item  are  constantly  going  on.  A  blackboard  at  the 
entrance  displays  the  bill  of  fare  for  the  different 
hours  of  the  day,  and  the  tables  are  always  thronged. 
The  public  rooms  are  also  full  of  people  talking  sugar 
and  freights,  and  reading  the  tissue  paper  telegrams 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  which  are  posted  on  the 
walls.  These  occupations  are  enlivened  by  the  con- 
tinual serving,  by  black  waiters  in  white  clothes,  of 
cooling  drinks  in  which  the  "  swizzle "  is  always 
prominent.  A  few  miles  from  town,  not  far  from  the 
shore,  is  the  Marine  hotel,  a  well-kept  house  under 
the  charge  of  a  Maine  landlord,  where  many  Ameri- 
cans spend  a  portion  of  the  winter  months.  The 
climate  is  healthy  and  the  diversions  of  sailing  and 
fishing,  added  to  excellent  society  if  one  has  proper 
introductions,  make  this  place  a  pleasant  and  desir- 
able resort.  Here  some  of  our  companions  during 
the  voyage  had  planned  to  spend  a  few  weeks,  in- 
tending to  return  by  other  steamers  and  different 
routes,  when  the  winter  winds  had  ceased  to  blow 


174  CRUISING   AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

and  spring  had  begun  its  verdant  procession  through 
the  United  States.  A  few  of  them  had  bicycles,  on 
which  they  proposed  to  mal^e  tours  over  the  excellent 
roads  of  the  island;  others  were  to  visit  friends  in 
Barbados,  and  a  few,  tired  of  voyaging,  were  inclined 
to  exchange  their  cabins  in  the  Madiana  for  the  large 
rooms  and  the  extended  freedom  which  are  to  be 
found  in  a  good  hotel  on  land.  We  were  not  yet 
ready,  however,  for  city  life,  with  railroads,  and  street 
cars,  and  telephones,  even  in  such  a  pleasant  climate, 
and  so,  with  the  majority  of  the  party,  having  tried 
the  cuisine  of  the  Ice  House,  and  added  largely  to 
our  stock  of  curiosities,  beads,  and  canes  and  shells, 
polished  turtle-backs  and  fans  of  gorgeous  plumes,  we 
were  ready  to  embark  once  more,  for  the  voyage  to 
Trinidad. 

Before  we  go,  a  few  facts  about  Barbados  should 
be  recorded.  The  Portuguese  claim  to  have  discov- 
ered the  island  in  1518,  and  to  have  given  it  the 
name,  which  means  "  bearded,"  because  at  that  time 
there  was  a  large  growth  of  banyan  trees  on  the 
island  whose  masses  of  fibrous  roots  hanging  from 
the  branches  resembled  huge  beards  swaying  in  the 
wind.  Barbados  is  the  most  easterly  of  the  Caribbees, 
lying  in  latitude  thirteen  degrees  north,  and  longi- 
tude fifty-nine  and  one-half  degrees  west.  It  is  from 
eighteen  to  twenty  miles  long,  and  about  twelve  miles 


BARBADOS  175 

wide,  and  contains  one  hundred  and  sixty-six 
square  miles,  nearly  one  hundred  and  seven  thousand 
acres,  of  which  as  I  have  said  less  than  one-fifteenth 
is  uncultivated.  The  greater  part  of  the  surface  is 
a  rolling  country,  though  in  the  northeastern  part  of 
the  island,  which  is  called  Scotland,  there  are  some 
high  hills,  called  Mounts  Hillaby  and  Boscobella. 
An  abundant  rainfall  secures  the  region  from 
drought,  in  spite  of  its  scanty  water-courses,  and  the 
extreme  fertility  of  the  soil  assures  abundant 
harvests.  If  the  entire  population  had  not  devoted 
their  energies  to  the  production  of  sugar,  there 
would  be  less  poverty  among  the  blacks  and  a  pros- 
perity among  the  planters  which  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  sugar  market  would  not  greatly  disturb.  The 
island  has  always  been  under  British  rule,  and  it 
shows  the  beneficent  effects  of  an  undisturbed  and 
firm  government  through  more  than  two  centuries. 
During  this  period  there  are  records  of  slight  shocks 
of  earthquake  and  of  several  destructive  tornadoes ; 
but,  upon  the  whole,  Barbados  may  be  reckoned  as 
one  of  the  safest,  healthiest,  and,  from  a  social  point  of 
view,  the  most  agreeable  of  the  Windward  Islands. 
We  spent  a  day  at  Bridgetown,  upon  the  return 
voyage,  and  left  the  place  with  pleasant  memories 
of  our  brief  visits. 


XX 

TRINIDAD 

THE  DRAGON'S  MOUTH  AND  THE  GULF  OF  PARIA  —  DIS- 
COVERY    BY     COLUMBUS THREE     FEARFUL      FIRES 

RAILWAYS,     STEAMSHIPS,     AND      ACTIVE     COMMERCE 

FAMOUS    GARDENS 

SEVENTEEN  hours  of  continuous  steaming  in  a 
southwesterly  direction  from  Barbados  brought  us 
within  sight  of  the  blue  mountains  of  Trinidad. 
We  passed  by  daylight  along  the  northern  coast, 
and  arrived  at  the  narrow  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of 
Paria,  known  as  Boca  Drago,  or  the  Dragon's 
Mouth.  Our  course  was  along  lofty  hills  rising 
from  the  water's  edge,  which  were  clothed  from 
sea  to  sky  in  dense,  dark  forests.  The  volcanic 
appearance  which  marked  the  Caribbean  Islands  is 
gone,  and  Trinidad  looks  like  a  part  of  a  conti- 
nent. Suddenly  a  narrow  passage  opened  through 
the  mountain  wall,  with  a  little  rocky  island, 
whitened  by  sea-birds,  in  its  midst.  Far  out  on 
the  horizon  beyond  the  misty  clouds  which  hovered 
over  the  sea,  could  be  discovered  the  continent  of 

178 


TRINIDAD  177 

South  America.  Through  a  maze  of  currents, 
which  would  have  made  the  passage  difficult  to  a 
sailing  vessel,  the  steamer  forced  its  way,  and  in  a 
short  time  we  had  passed  among  a  few  low  wooded 
islands  into  the  vast  Gulf  of  Paria,  the  great  watery 
plain  where  the  floods  of  the  Orinoco  spread  them- 
selves before  mingling  with  the  sea.  The  change 
was  marvellous ;  instead  of  the  bright  blue  ocean 
we  were  ploughing  a  yellow  sea,  waveless  and  blaz- 
ing with  the  reflection  of  a  tropical  sun.  The  hills 
of  Trinidad  rose  in  the  east,  westward  the  sky  met 
the  water,  while  a  low  shore  could  be  seen  in  the 
far  south  fringed  with  mangroves  and  palms. 

We  had  come  into  the  gulf  by  the  northern  pas- 
sage ;  the  southern,  by  which  Columbus  entered  on 
his  third  voyage,  lies  opposite  and  is  called  the  Boca 
Sierpe,  or  Serpent's  Mouth.  Here  after  a  long  and 
trying  voyage,  the  great  navigator  had  found  land 
again,  and  in  fulfilment  of  a  vow  to  name  the  first 
land  after  the  Holy  Trinity,  he  called  the  island 
Trinidad.  He  found  groves  of  palm  trees  and 
noble  forests  and  abundant  springs  and  streams, 
though  he  had  supposed  that  so  near  the  equator 
nature  would  be  parched  and  sterile.  It  was  Jan- 
uary, and  he  likens  the  climate  to  that  of  Southern 
Spain.  Equally  did  the  people  please  him,  for  he 
describes  them  as  "people  all  of  good  stature,  well 


178  CEUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

made  and  of  very  graceful  bearing,  with  much  and 
smooth  hair."  They  were  fairer  than  the  other 
Indians;  their  chiefs  wore  little  clothing,  and  the 
women  none  at  all;  they  were  armed  with  bows 
and  arrows  and  carried  shields  of  hide.  The  Span- 
iards came  again  and  again  to  Trinidad,  and  made 
its  natives  slaves,  and  it  was  not  until  a  century 
had  passed  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  sailed  into  the 
Gulf  of  Paria,  and  landed  at  La  Brea,  which  is 
now  celebrated  as  the  shipping  place  for  the 
great  Pitch  Lake,  and  tarred  his  ship  with  the 
black  bitumen  which  now  supplies  the  material 
for  American  city  pavements.  Two  centuries  of 
cruelty  and  conflict  between  Spain  and  France  and 
England  succeeded,  during  which  the  natives  suf- 
fered most  of  all,  till,  in  1797,  the  island  became 
an  English  possession.  The  Carib  population  has 
long  since  died  out,  and  thousands  of  negroes  and 
East  Indian  coolies  have  taken  their  place.  All 
sorts  of  people  resort  to  Trinidad  for  purposes 
of  gain  —  English,  French,  Spaniards,  Americans, 
Portuguese,  Chinese,  gather  there,  and  the  island 
is  prosperous.  Not  more  than  a  quarter  of  the 
soil  is  under  cultivation,  but  its  fertility  is  great  and 
the  yield  is  large.  Each  year  sees  new  plantations 
of  indigo,  and  coffee,  and  cocoa,  and  sugar-cane ; 
and  even  the  coolies  get  rich  and  go  back  to  India 


TRINIDAD  179 

with  bags  of  gold  and  silver,  as  the  results  of  their 
five  or  ten  years  of  toil  in  exile. 

When  the  anchor  of  the  Madiana  went  down  into 
the  Gulf  of  Paria  and  we  steamed  ahead  to  bring 
it  to  a  hold,  the  water  became  as  muddy  as  the 
Mississippi.  A  steam  launch  soon  came  to  carry 
the  passengers  ashore,  and  on  our  way  thither  we 
passed  a  dismantled  and  rusting  hulk  moored  before 
the  town,  and  also  a  river  steamer  with  its  huge 
stern- wheel.  This  was  the  freight  and  passenger 
steamer  in  which  one  of  our  company,  who  had 
entertained  us  with  his  mandolin,  his  monkey 
bought  at  St.  Kitt's,  and  his  photographic  views, 
was  to  ascend  the  Orinoco.  I  have  seen  him  since 
the  voyage,  and  his  tales  of  the  dangers  and  delights 
of  the  way  made  me  long  for  a  chance  to  go  up  this 
river  and  the  still  larger  Amazon,  and  see  nature 
and  man  in  these  fresh  routes  of  travel. 

Port  of  Spain  was  a  curious  compound  of  English, 
French,  and  Spanish  buildings  placed  on  broad  streets 
or  around  tree-planted  squares,  with  tramways  along 
the  chief  avenues,  dirty  gutters  and  hundreds  of 
disgusting  black  and  gray  buzzards,  gobbling  up 
refuse  or  roosting  on  the  trees.  I  use  the  past 
tense  in  speaking  of  the  town,  for  a  few  days  after 
we  left  the  place,  a  fire  broke  out  and  spread 
rapidly,  destroying  the  business  portion  of  the 


180  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

town  and  entailing  a  loss  of  four  millions  of  dol- 
lars. It  was  only  through  the  efforts  of  the 
marines  of  the  American  men-of-war  New  York, 
Cincinnati,  and  Raleigh  that  a  more  terrible  loss 
of  property  and  of  life  was  averted.  The  marines 
to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  rendered 
prompt  and  efficient  service  with  their  fire  hose, 
which  was  taken  ashore  in  the  ships'  boats.  This 
is  the  third  great  fire  which  has  occurred  here  in 
the  past  dozen  years.  A  fire  broke  out  in  the 
Union  Club  House  on  the  morning  of  January  28, 
1884,  and  in  a  short  time  the  whole  southeastern 
portion  of  the  town  was  in  ruins.  The  principal 
hotel  and  the  largest  dry-goods  establishment  were 
entirely  destroyed.  The  loss  was  estimated  at 
more  than  $400,000.  At  that  time  there  was  no 
fire  department  in  Port  of  Spain,  and  the  flames 
subsided  only  when  everything  before  them  was 
consumed. 

There  was  a  second  serious  fire  in  Port  of 
Spain  early  in  the  morning  of  February  15,  1891, 
which  destroyed  many  lives  and  much  valuable 
property.  In  a  very  picturesque  esplanade  called 
Marine  Square  was  located  a  hotel,  kept  by  a 
Venezuelan  gentleman  and  patronized  largely  by 
Venezuelans.  On  the  night  of  February  14  this 
hotel  had  about  fifty  guests,  who  retired  to  bed  be- 


TRINIDAD  181 

tween  eleven  o'clock  and  midnight.  The  fire  had 
its  origin  in  this  hotel  at  about  three  o'clock  of  the 
following  morning,  and  destroyed  the  principal 
staircase  leading  to  the  street,  thus  cutting  off  the 
escape  of  many  of  the  boarders.  The  hotel  was 
composed  of  stone  and  wood,  and  consisted  of  a 
basement,  upper  floor,  and  attic.  Most  of  the  men 
lodgers  succeeded  in  getting  out,  but  in  the  attic 
were  located  three  Venezuelan  women,  —  Senorita 
Maria  Echevarria  and  Senoras  Rosa  Echevarria  and 
Rosaria  de  Osio.  There  were  also  nine  children 
and  two  servants  sleeping  in  this  attic.  When 
these  persons  learned  that  the  building  was  on 
fire,  they  rushed  madly  to  the  staircase,  only  to 
find  it  gone.  Thousands  of  spectators  who  had 
gathered  in  the  streets  witnessed  the  terrifying 
spectacle  of  these  mothers  throwing  their  children 
and  themselves  from  the  attic  windows.  A  gentle- 
man, Geronimo  Fagasin,  who  had  also  been  sleep- 
ing in  the  attic,  threw  himself  out  of  the  window 
and  broke  his  neck  in  the  fall.  Of  those  who  fell, 
only  one  survived,  the  little  Concha  Osio,  four 
years  old.  The  others  all  died  from  their  injuries. 
The  fire  meanwhile  had  spread  to  the  adjoining 
buildings,  and  in  a  short  time  something  like 
$200,000  worth  of  property  was  destroyed.  In  the 
fire  of  March,  1895,  though  an  immense  amount 


182  CRUISING   AMONG   THE   CARIBBEES 

of  property  was  burned,  fortunately  no  lives  were 
lost,  but  many  persons  were  rendered  homeless  and 
financially  ruined,  and  the  commerce  of  the  place 
was  seriously  crippled. 

There  is  an  extensive  carrying  trade  between  Port 
of  Spain  and  Venezuela.  Gold  and  other  produce  of 
the  latter  country  are  brought  to  Trinidad  for  reship- 
ment,  and  goods  from  Europe  and  elsewhere  are  sent 
to  Trinidad  and  re-exported  thence  to  Venezuela. 
Port  of  Spain  is  the  only  harbor  of  any  commercial 
importance  on  the  island,  and  it  is  also  regarded  as 
one  of  the  best  in  the  West  Indies.  Eighteen  steam- 
ers a  month  from  Liverpool,  London,  and  Southamp- 
ton give  Port  of  Spain  exceptionally  good  means  of 
communication  with  England  and  with  the  other 
West  Indian  islands.  In  addition,  four  steamers  of 
the  French  line,  two  of  the  Quebec  and  Gulf  line, 
two  of  the  Atlantic  and  West  Indian  line  from  the 
United  States,  and  two  of  the  Dutch  line  run  every 
month.  There  are  also  seven  steamers  running 
between  the  island  and  Venezuela.  The  first  rail- 
way in  the  colony,  from  Port  of  Spain  to  Armia, 
sixteen  miles,  was  opened  in  1876.  From  St.  Joseph, 
a  station  on  the  line  six  miles  from  Port  of  Spain,  a 
line  has  been  built  to  San  Fernando,  twenty-nine 
miles,  and  Prince's  Town,  thirty-six  miles.  The 
total  length  of  railway  open  on  December  31,  1890, 


TRINIDAD  183 

was  fifty-four  and  a  quarter  miles,  the  whole  of  which 
was  constructed  at  a  total  cost  of  £ 602,638,  and  is 
owned  by  the  government.  Coast  steamers  ply 
three  times  a  week  from  Port  of  Spain  to  San  Fer- 
nando and  on  to  Cedros  in  the  southwestern  corner 
of  the  island,  a  total  distance  of  sixty  miles. 

The  government  house  stands  out  of  town,  in  large 
grounds  at  the  foot  of  .the  mountains.  In  front  and 
around  it  are  the  famous  botanical  gardens.  We 
had  seen  nothing  equal  to  them  in  the  West  Indies. 
Every  known  species  of  palm  tree,  from  the  tall 
cocoa  palm  laden  with  fruit,  to  the  traveller's  palm 
whose  stems  hold  a  tumblerful  of  refreshing  water, 
were  growing  here.  Nutmeg,  cinnamon,  and  other 
spice  trees,  immense  ceibas  with  their  buttressed 
trunks,  flamboyants  and  almonds,  orange  orchards, 
coffee  and  pineapple  plantations  filled  the  air  with 
fragrance,  and  masses  of  flowers  delighted  the  eye 
with  rich  and  varied  colors.  Huge  vines  hung  from 
some  of  the  largest  trees  and  orchids  clung  to  trunks 
and  branches.  It  was  a  paradise  of  vegetation,  rank 
and  rich,  yet  under  careful  and  intelligent  supervis- 
ion. We  spent  a  morning  of  delight  among  these 
natural  wonders  and  beauties,  and  then  strolled  by 
pleasant  roads  to  the  beautiful  Savannah,  and  lunched 
at  a  new  and  well-appointed  hotel  on  one  of  the  streets 
which  bound  this  great  pleasure  ground  of  Trinidad. 


XXI 

HINDUS   AT   TRINIDAD 

CONTRAST    OF    RACES COOLIE    APPRENTICESHIP,     LABOR 

AND    LIFE A    COLLECTION    OF    LIVING   CURIOSITIES 

HINDU    PRIEST,  ACCAWAI    INDIANS,  AND    COOLIE    BELLE 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  excursions  which 
the  traveller  can  make  in  Trinidad  is  to  the  coolie 
villages.  The  coolie  village  in  connection  with 
Port  of  Spain  is  about  three  miles  from  the  town. 
The  road  thither  is  lined  with  bamboo  thickets  and 
rows  of  palm  trees,  and  their  shade  is  appreciated 
in  this  tropical  region,  where  the  direct  rays  of 
the  sun  are  painful  ,  and  dangerous.  We  drove 
through  uncleanly  suburbs  where  black  vultures 
were  feeding  upon  garbage,  and  soon  came  to  the 
village.  It  is  a  collection  of  shanties  by  the  road- 
side made  of  boards  or  of  palm  thatch  supported 
on  bamboo  props.  In  front  of  each  were  men, 
women,  and  children ;  a  totally  different  race  from 
the  negroes  or  the  black  West  Indians.  Clothed 
in  his  long  white  linen  gown,  with  a  turban  on 
his  head,  or  with  nothing  on  but  the  scarf  twisted 

184 


HINDUS   AT   TRINIDAD  185 

about  his  loins,  the  Hindu  bears  himself  with 
dignity  and  reserve.  His  features  are  delicate  and 
clear-cut,  his  manners  are  those  of  a  civilization 
of  which  the  negro  knows  nothing,  and  which 
indicates  the  sway  of  mind  over  matter.  He  may 
be  a  degraded  heathen  and  know  little  more  than 
the  African,  but  he  does  not  thus  impress  the  vis- 
itor. He  has  the  gravity  of  the  sphinx,  and  an 
aristocratic  bearing  which  is  out  of  harmony  with 
his  environment.  One  instinctively  connects  the 
negro  with  the  animal  creation ;  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  imagine  the  Hindu  as  anything  but  a 
man.  Even  when  seated  cross-legged  before  a  little 
charcoal  furnace  fashioning  silver  and  gold  orna- 
ments out  of  coins,  or  carrying  loads,  or  working 
in  the  fields,  there  is  something  in  shape  or  move- 
ment or  expression  that  indicates  mental  power, 
a  descent  from  a  cultured  ancestry,  a  superiority 
to  present  conditions.  Much  of  this  is  doubtless 
due  to  the  contrast  which  is  presented  in  such  a 
place  as  Port  of  Spain  between  the  noisy  and  loose- 
mannered  negroes  of  the  town  and  the  silent,  self- 
contained  coolies,  who  dwell  apart  in  their  own 
village;  but  circumstances  will  not  wholly  account 
for  such  marked  differences  as  are  seen  in  the 
races. 

There   are    many  thousand    of    these    coolies   in 


186  CRUISING   AMONG  THE   CAKIBBEES 

Trinidad,  and  upon  the  whole  the  arrangements 
under  which  they  emigrate  and  work  in  the  island 
are  beneficial  to  employer  and  employed.  They 
are  brought  from  Hindustan  at  the  expense  of  the 
colony  under  the  care  of  government  agents,  and 
are  of  course  well  cared  for  and  fed  during  the 
voyage.  On  arrival  those  who  are  in  good  condi- 
tion are  apprenticed  to  owners  who  desire  them, 
for  five  years.  Families  are  not  allowed  to  be 
separated  except  in  the  case  of  children  who  are 
over  fifteen  years  of  age.  They  are  bound  by  law 
to  work  nine  hours  a  day  for  two  hundred  and 
eighty  days  in  the  year,  and  receive  the  regular 
rate  of  wages.  The  law  punishes  the  coolie  for 
wilful  idleness,  and  the  employer  for  any  fraud  in 
his  dealings  with  the  laborer.  For  the  two  first 
years  a  part  of  their  payment  consists  of  rations, 
but  for  the  rest  of  their  time  they  are  paid  in  cash. 
Each  estate  employing  coolies  is  obliged  to  provide 
a  hospital  which  is  under  the  inspection  of  a  med- 
ical visitor,  and  all  the  labor  arrangements  are 
subject  to  the  inspection  of  a  government  agent 
who  visits  the  estates  constantly  and  reports  each 
week  to  the  agent-general  of  immigrants.  He  in 
turn  reports  to  the  governor,  who  has  absolute 
authority  to  cancel  the  contract  and  remove  any 
or  all  of  the  coolies  from  an  estate.  The  system 


HINDUS    AT   TRINIDAD  187 

is  a  good  one,  provided  only  that  the  agents  and 
the  governor  are  of  high  character,  and  faithful 
in  the  discharge  of  their  duties;  and  so  far  as  I 
could  learn,  it  has  worked  well  in  Trinidad. 

When  the  five  years  of  indenture  are  ended, 
the  coolie  can  make  a  new  contract  for  a  year  or 
he  can  work  for  whomsoever  he  chooses.  After  he 
lias  been  in  the  colony  ten  years,  he  can  claim  a  free 
passage  home  to  India,  or  he  is  allowed  to  receive 
instead  of  that  claim  a  government  grant  of  ten 
acres  of  land.  The  coolies  have  usually  preferred 
the  former,  though  some  have  settled  permanently 
in  the  island,  and  others  have  returned  for  a 
second  term  of  service,  bringing  friends  and  relatives 
with  them.  Though  these  Hindus  are  all  low  caste, 
yet  they  do  not  amalgamate  to  any  extent  with  the 
other  blacks.  They  dwell  by  themselves  as  far  as 
possible,  they  have  a  priest  of  their  own  religion, 
and  they  live  a  simple  family  life  ;  they  are  jealous 
of  their  marital  rights,  extremely  fond  of  their 
children,  frugal  in  their  expenditures,  and  as  well 
behaved  as  any  class  of  the  community.  They  live 
mostly  in  the  open  air,  for  in  the  climate  of  Trinidad 
a  house  is  only  for  a  shelter  when  it  rains,  or  a  place 
to  sleep ;  and  a  hammock  under  one  of  the  umbra- 
geous trees  is  more  attractive  here  than  the  best  bed 
under  a  roof.  A  charcoal  brazier  and  a  brass  pot, 


188  CRUISING  AMONG  THE   CARIBBEES 

with  a  few  jugs  and  dishes  of  coarse  pottery,  com- 
prise all  the  household  furniture  which  the  coolie 
needs.  Rice  and  cassava  root,  with  the  fruits  which 
are  ready  at  hand,  supply  their  scanty  meals.  They 
have  little,  but  their  wants  are  few;  they  have 
no  debts  and  no  duns ;  no  clothes  at  the  pawn- 
broker's and  very  few  anywhere ;  they  are  accumu- 
lating gold  and  silver  pieces  to  support  them  for 
the  rest  of  their  lives  in  Hindustan;  they  will  go 
home  to  a  blissful  Nirvana,  or  to  its  equivalent  in 
their  simple  imaginations. 

An  agent  from  "  Barnum  and  Bailey's  Greatest 
Show  on  Earth"  made  his  appearance  while  we 
were  at  Port  of  Spain,  and  engaged  passage  for 
a  curious  collection  of  Indians  from  South  America, 
to  which  he  added  as  stars  for  the  ethnological 
department  of  the  show,  the  Hindu  priest  of  the 
coolie  village,  and  "  Julia,"  a  beautiful  specimen 
of  a  coolie  woman.  The  agent  paid  these  Hindus 
twenty  dollars  a  month  for  a  six  months'  trip, 
and  contracted  to  put  them  ashore  at  Trinidad 
at  the  end  of  their  contract.  They  were  all  deck 
passengers  except  Julia,  who  was  allowed  a  cabin 
and  behaved  with  as  much  propriety  and  conven- 
tionality as  any  of  the  passengers.  The  ladies  on 
board  were  very  kind  to  her,  and  we  were  all 
sorry  when  she  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  reporter 


BARBAJEE,    HINDU    COOLIE    PRIEST 


HINDUS   AT  TRINIDAD  189 

who  thus  exploited  the  arrival  of  the  Madiana  in 
New  York :  — 

"  With  '  the  sword  of  Adam  and  Eve '  before  him 
and  '  the  rod  of  Moses '  under  his  arm,  the  Right 
Reverend  Barbajee,  high  priest  of  the  island  of 
Trinidad,  descended  the  gang-plank  of  the  steamer 
Madiana  with  stately  tread  yesterday  afternoon 
as  she  lay  alongside  the  dock  of  the  Quebec  Steam- 
ship Company.  Attired  in  full  sacerdotal  robes, 
with  the  sacred  turban  upon  his  head  and  a  smile 
of  trustfulness  upon  his  genial,  ebony  countenance, 
Barbajee  has  come  to  convert  America  through  the 
channel  of  Barnum  and  Bailey's  peripatetic  summer 
camp-meeting,  popularly  known  as  the  '  Greatest  Show 
on  Earth.'  Barbajee  was  not  unattended.  Twenty- 
one  men  and  women  and  four  children  from  the 
West  Indies  and  South  America  came  with  him 
on  the  steamer,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Bailey's  agent. 
There  were  five  Accawai  Indians  and  four  Warri- 
hoones  from  the  Orinoco  River,  four  Caribs,  four 
Hindu  Creoles,  two  Hindus,  and  three  Barbadians 
in  the  lot. 

"  Their  many-hued  raiment  was  of  the  chintz 
curtain  order,  but  their  jewelry  was  superb.  The 
women  were  loaded  down  with  bracelets  to  the 
elbows,  rings  on  their  fingers,  and  'bells  on  their 
toes.'  Ankle  rings,  earrings,  nose  rings,  and 


190  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CAKIBBEES 

other  kinds  of  ornaments  were  distributed  over 
every  visible  portion  of  their  persons,  especially  the 
Hindu  coolies,  of  whom  there  are  eighty  thousand 
on  the  island  of  Trinidad.  There  being  no  law 
forbidding  contract  labor  there,  they  are  brought 
over  to  work  on  the  cocoa  plantations  under  contract, 
and  remain  to  form  an  important  part  of  the  island's 
population.  The  Indians  were  nearer  to  nature. 
Their  only  ornament  was  paint,  with  India  ink 
etching.  Their  raiment  is  equally  parti-colored 
but  their  facial  expressions  are  less  engaging.  Bar- 
bajee  is  a  great  evangelist. 

"Next  to  Barbajee,  the  star  of  the  West  Indian 
combination  was  Julia  Blare  Lall.  Julia  is  the  belle 
of  Trinidad,  and  her  fortune  is  her  face,  and  the 
golden  ornaments  thereof.  Julia  talks  good  English, 
and  though  her  smile  is  a  little  twisted  because  there 
are  several  ounces  of  gold  pendants  hanging  to  her 
left  nostril,  she  promises  to  be  a  success  in  New 
York  society." 

Several  of  the  Indians  succumbed  to  the  cold  of  a 
New  York  April,  but  the  others  survived.  I  saw  the 
priest  and  Julia  in  the  ethnological  procession  at  the 
Madison  Square  Garden.  They  recognized  a  friendly 
face  and  broke  ranks  to  shake  hands.  It  seemed  sad 
to  see  them  marching  around  the  dusty  ring  in  com- 
pany with  a  lot  of  bushmen  and  barbarians,  and  I 


HINDUS   AT  TRINIDAD  191 

only  hope  that  they  will  get  back  to  their  simple  life 
in  the  coolie  village  without  disaster.  They  pro- 
fessed that  a  desire  to  see  the  United  States  was  a 
more  potent  motive  to  make  the  voyage  than  the 
money  which  was  offered  them,  and  judging  by  my 
own  fondness  for  new  and  strange  countries,  I  could 
not  doubt  their  word. 


XXII 
LA  BREA  AND   THE  PITCH  LAKE 

WHERE  THE  PITCH  COMES  FROM  —  BLACKNESS  OF  DARKNESS 

TURNING   PITCH    INTO  GOLD HOMEWARD  BOUND 

AU    REVOIR 

SIXTY  miles  south  of  Port  of  Spain  is  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  world;  a  dark  and  disagreeable  thing, 
indeed,  but  yet  a  phenomenon.  Pitch  is  no  novelty, 
but  a  plain  of  a  hundred  acres  more  or  less,  where 
the  pitch  is  bubbling  up  at  the  rate  of  tons  a  day,  is 
certainly  worth  seeing,  and  I  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  snob  who  sent  his  valet  to  inspect  it  for  him, 
because,  as  he  said,  it  was  a  dirty  job  and  a  black 
lake  was  not  half  as  beautiful  as  an  ordinary  lake. 
The  bitumen  deposits  by  the  Dead  Sea  and  at  Baku 
on  the  Caspian,  and  the  oil  wells  of  Pennsylvania  are 
not  beautiful  to  look  upon,  but  they  are  curious  and 
instructive,  and  they  promote  study  and  scientific 
investigation.  It  was  once  thought  that  the  Pitch 
Lake  of  Trinidad  had  some  connection  with  the  vol- 
canic forces  of  the  West  Indies,  but  a  sounder  and 
simpler  explanation  has  been  given  by  practical  chem- 

192 


LA  BKEA  AND  THE  PITCH  LAKE  193 

ists  and  surveyors,  to  wit,  that  the  buried  vegetable 
matter  which  has  been  amassed  here  becomes  a  sort 
of  peat,  and  then  is  converted  by  the  chemical  proc- 
esses of  nature  into  an  oily  asphalt,  which  under 
the  pressure  of  the  upper  soil  gradually  oozes  up  to 
the  surface. 

We  came  to  La  Brea  at  daylight  in  order  to  avoid 
the  heat,  which  upon  the  Pitch  Lake  in  the  middle 
of  the  day  is  something  frightful.  We  were  put 
ashore  in  boats  through  a  heavy  surf,  landing  on  a 
reef  of  pitch  which  had  flowed  down  into  the  sea, 
and  become  almost  as  hard  as  cement.  The  beach  is 
mostly  covered  with  black  pitch,  and  a  road  made  ar- 
tificially of  the  same  material  winds  up  a  long  but 
gradual  ascent  to  the  lake.  The  sun  had  risen,  and 
though  the  road  was  partly  through  woodland,  its  sur- 
face soon  became  yielding  under  the  heat,  and  was 
unpleasantly  warm  to  the  feet.  It  seemed  strange  to 
see  rich  vegetation  everywhere,  but  it  is  evident  that 
the  pitch  does  not  injure  it.  I  picked  huge  waxy 
red  flowers  out  of  little  green  oases  in  the  pitchy 
plain,  and  a  variety  of  smaller  plants  and  flowers 
were  growing  in  the  same  places.  But  everything 
was  more  or  less  coated  with  pitch  dust,  the  smell  of 
pitch  was  in  the  air,  and  after  a  walk  of  less  than 
a  mile  up  a  gentle  slope  we  reached  our  goal.  The 
black  lake  with  its  inky  pools,  and  spots  of  yellow 


194  CRUISING  AMONG  THE  CARIBBEES 

bubbles,  and  water  cracks,  and  yielding  surface,  and 
strong  odor  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  has  been  often 
described,  but  it  must  be  seen  and  smelled  to  be 
appreciated.  Anything  more  black,  malodorous,  and 
repulsive  in  nature  I  have  never  seen  upon  earth's 
surface. 

It  has  been  likened  to  a  vast  asphalt  pavement 
with  many  furrows  and  holes  filled  with  inky 
waters,  in  which  swim  ugly  fish  and  black  beetles. 
Charles  Kingsley  compares  it  to  a  crowd  of  immense 
black  mushrooms  of  all  shapes,  close  together,  their 
tops  on  a  level,  and  their  rounded  rims  squeezed 
tight  against  each  other,  with  water  poured  over 
them  so  as  to  fill  all  the  seams.  But  these  are  inven- 
tions, not  descriptions.  A  vast  black  lake  with  mul- 
titudes of  circles  such  as  are  made  when  a  stone  is 
thrown  into  water,  gives  a  fair  idea  of  the  appearance 
from  a  little  distance.  When  one  comes  to  walk 
over  the  pitch,  for  it  is  solid  enough  to  walk  over,  he 
finds  deep  pools  and  channels  of  water,  and  places 
where  the  pitch  bubbles  up  with  a  yellowish  scum 
and  a  sulphurous  smell.  If  he  stands  long  in  one 
place  after  the  sun  is  high,  his  feet  sink  gradu- 
ally; and  horses  and  carts  which  load  the  material 
only  remain  a  few  moments  in  the  same  spot.  When 
pieces  of  pitch  are  taken  out,  nature  at  once  begins 
to  repair  the  damage,  and  in  twenty -four  hours  the 


LA  BEE  A  AND   THE  PITCH  LAKE  195 

hole  is  filled  up  again.  We  saw  the  process  begin- 
ning in  a  dozen  different  places.  Besides  the  curious 
sight  of  little  islands  of  rich  vegetation  rising  out  of 
this  black  plain,  there  were  here  and  there  great 
pieces  of  wood  sticking  up  endwise,  having  appar- 
ently come  up  through  the  pitch,  for  they  had 
crowns  of  pitch  on  the  end  which  rose  two  or  three 
feet  above  the  surface.  A  strange  quality  of  the  ma- 
terial was  that  it  did  not  stick  to  or  soil  the  hands. 
I  took  a  ball  of  the  stuff  and  worked  it  like  putty,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  water  was  thoroughly  squeezed 
out  that  it  began  to  show  any  dirty  or  adhesive  char- 
acteristics. This  is  due  to  the  amount  of  earthy 
matter  which  is  mingled  with  the  vegetable  oil  in  the 
product. 

We  walked  over  acres  of  the  lake,  dug  into  it 
for  specimens,  one  of  the  lads  caught  a  fish  in  a 
black  pool,  and  lest  the  sulphuretted  hydrogen  and 
the  hot  sun  in  combination  should  make  us  sick,  we 
limited  our  visit  to  about  an  hour.  The  tract  is  leased 
by  the  government  of  Trinidad  to  an  American  asphalt 
company  for  forty-one  years  at  sixty  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  and  the  company  is  coining  money.  Its  presi- 
dent recently  paid  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  million  of 
dollars  for  a  palace  in  New  York,  and  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  business  which  can  be  done  in  this  material. 
It  is  used  for  pavements,  for  roofs,  for  cellars,  for  the 


196  CRUISING  AMONG   THE  CAEIBBEES 

protection  of  walls  for  tombs,  for  tennis  courts  and 
garden  paths,  for  village  sidewalks ;  and  new  appli- 
cations are  devised  every  month  which  will  turn  this 
black  and  ill-smelling  mass  into  the  gold  which 
Columbus  and  his  comrades  vainly  sought  in  Trinidad. 
Thus  does  the  world  progress,  and  the  discarded  and 
despised  materials  of  one  century  become  the  wealth 
of  its  successors.  The  asphalt  company  has  estab- 
lished machinery  near  the  lake  to  crush  and  purify 
the  pitch  as  it  comes  from  the  lake  in  carts,  to  form 
it  into  blocks  or  pack  it  in  barrels,  and  an  endless 
chain  of  huge  iron  buckets  has  been  set  up  from  the 
works  to  the  shore  to  facilitate  the  transportation  of 
the  asphalt  to  vessels.  I  was  afforded  an  excellent 
example  to  what  base  uses  fine  things  may  come, 
when  I  saw  the  Madiana,  which  was  so  neat  and  trim 
on  our  winter  excursion,  lying  on  a  summer  day  at 
her  New  York  dock,  dirty  and  grimy,  and  discharg- 
ing tons  of  black  freight  from  La  Brea  and  the 
Pitch  Lake  upon  the  wharf. 

We  rowed  through  a  rough  sea  back  to  our  steamer, 
hoisted  the  anchor,  and  before  noon  were  once  more 
at  Port  of  Spain.  Our  long  voyage  to  the  south  was 
ended  and  the  ship  was  homeward  bound. 

Over  the  azure  sea,  under  the  Southern  Cross, 
among  the  beautiful  islands  whose  wonderful  sym- 
metry and  exquisite  outlines  had  become  a  constant 


LA  BREA  AND  THE  PITCH   LAKE  197 

delight,  slipping  into  the  quiet  harbors,  palm-edged 
and  shadowed  by  wondrous  inland  forests,  saying 
"  hail  and  farewell "  to  friends  in  the  larger  towns, 
so  we  cruised  back  to  Barbados  and  Martinique,  to 
Dominica,  to  Guadeloupe,  Antigua  and  St.  Kitt's. 
We  greeted  each  island  as  a  personality  and  bade 
them  in  turn  au  revoir,  for  we  are  sure  to  come 
again  into  this  charming  region  where  the  winter  of 
our  discontent  is  made  glorious  summer;  where 
"every  prospect  pleases,"  and  it  is  not  needful  to 
quote  the  next  line  of  the  good  bishop's  hymn.  If 
we  could  only  be  sure  of  such  agreeable  and  intelli- 
gent companions,  and  so  fortunate  a  voyage  each 
winter,  it  would  be  well  to  migrate  annually  like 
the  birds. 

One  morning  we  were  again  at  S.t.  Thomas;  the 
men-of-war  had  departed,  the  town  was  asleep;  we 
landed  and  engaged  in  commerce ;  freighted  with 
cigars,  bay  rum,  fruits,  and  plants,  we  returned 
to  the  ship,  and  were  soon  steaming  northward. 
After  two  days  the  mercury  in  the  thermometer  has 
fallen  to  sixty  degrees  Fahrenheit  at  noon ;  there  is 
a  chill  in  the  morning  air ;  we  steam  through  float- 
ing masses  of  seaweed  ;  a  deep  blue  water  is  beneath, 
and  a  cold  blue  and  white  sky  overhead.  The  pas- 
sengers have  packed  up  their  white  clothes  and 
straw  hats,  and  appear  in  dark  tweeds  and  winter 


198  CRUISING   AMONG   THE  CARIBBEES 

gray  suits,  with -blue  yachting  caps  and  black  felt 
hats.  West  India  mangoes  and  sapodillas  have  given 
place  to  oranges  on  the  table,  and  we  have  an  appe- 
tite for  animal  food.  Ah,  a  northeaster  has  struck 
us ;  we  meet  cold,  sleety  rain ;  leafless  trees ;  winter 
lingering  in  the  lap  of  spring.  But  we  are  heartily 
welcomed  home.  Some  of  the  warmest  and  truest 
of  human  hearts  beat  in  the  colder  climates  of  the 
earth,  and  it  is  our  happy  lot  to  have  a  multitude  of 
such  warm-hearted  friends,  God  bless  them  all. 


THE  END 


A  NEW  BOOK  BY  DR.  CHARLES  A.  STODDARD. 


SUMMER   DAYS   IN   WINTER   MONTHS. 


ILLUSTRATED.     12mo.    $1.5O. 


This  new  book  is  a  graphic  narrative  of  Dr.  Stoddard's  experi- 
ences and  observations  during  a  leisurely  cruise  among  the 
Windward  Islands.  The  influence  of  the  romantic  historical 
associations  of  this  famed  Spanish  Main  is  felt  throughout  his 
book  ;  and  these  pictures  of  the  past  bring  into  relief  the  author's 
vivid  descriptions  of  the  islands  he  visited  and  his  racy  sketches 
of  the  peoples,  —  English,  French,  Dutch,  Creoles,  Coolies,  Negroes, 
and  native  Caribs,  who  make  up  the  heterogeneous  but  infinitely 
picturesque  population.  The  illustrations,  selected  from  the 
author's  collection,  are  a  real  embellishment  to  the  book. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  Literature  of  the  Islands. 
II.  Discovery  and  Characteristics. 
HI.  A  Sea  Change. 
IV.   The  Virgin  Group. 
V.  St.  Thomas  and  its  People. 
VI.   Santa  Cruz. 
VII.  From  Saba  to  St.  Kitt's. 
VIII.  Life  on  St.  Kitt's. 
IX.  A  Real  West  Indian  Island. 
X.  Antigua  and  its  Annals. 
XI.  Witchcraft  and  Superstition. 
XII.  Guadeloupe. 


XIII.  Sabbath  Day  Island. 

XIV.  Caribs  of  Dominica  and  St. 

Vincent. 

XV.  Isle  de  Martinique . 
XVI.  Battles  among  the  Islands . 
XVII.  St.  Lucia. 

XVIII.  St.  Vincent  and  the  Grena- 
dines. 

XIX.  Barbados. 
XX.  Trinidad. 
XXI.  Hindus  at  Trinidad. 
XXU.  La  Brea  and  the  Pitch  Lake. 


DR.  STODDARD'S  OTHER  BOOKS  OF  TRAVEL. 

ACROSS    RUSSIA 

FROM   THE^  BALTIC   TO   THE  DANUBE. 

ILLUSTRATED.     12  mo.     &1.BO. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

"  Dr.  Stoddard  has  all  the  primary  essentials  of  a  tourist,  eyes  to  see, 
ears  to  hear,  with  a  well-pronounced  faculty  of  keeping  the  precious 
metal  separate  from  the  dross.  ...  He  made  good  use  of  his  time  and 
of  his  opportunities,  and  we  but  do  him  justice  when  we  say  that  we 
know  of  no  book  on  the  same  subject  in  which  so  much  useful,  read- 
able, enjoyable  matter  is  to  be  found."  —  Christian  at  Work. 

"  A  most  interesting  volume.  ...  A  keen  eye,  a  ready  wit,  and 
great  felicity  of  expression  have  enabled  the  author  to  present  to  the 
public  a  book  of  travels  quite  out  of  the  ordinary  style.  While  truth- 
ful as  sober  history,  it  is  as  charming  as  a  novel."  —  New  York  Journal 
of  Commerce. 

"  The  volume  has  many  fine  illustrations.  Mr.  Stoddard  is  a  good 
traveller ;  he  sees  well,  and  his  descriptions  of  people  and  places  are 
graphic  and  of  large  value.  .  .  .  Our  author  takes  in  all  the  leading 
cities,  sees  what  there  is  to  see  of  art,  visits  and  describes  the  famous 
palaces  and  churches  and  hospitals,  and  makes  his  book  as  profitable 
as  it  is  pleasing."  —  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

"In  the  easy  style  of  a  traveller,  he  tells  his  readers  what  is  worth 
telling,  and  leaves  the  rest  unsaid.  .  .  .  The  great  works  of  art,  the 
imposing  churches,  the  capacious  palaces,  all  are  described  in  a  concise 
yet  satisfactory  manner,  as  well  as  the  customs,  religious  and  other- 
wise, of  the  people."  —  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"The  author  of  this  book  sets  before  his  readers  vivid  pictures  of 
this  interesting  country  and  people."—  United  Presbyterian,  Pitts- 
burgh. 

"  Mr.  Stoddard  seems  to  have  had  exceptional  opportunities  to  study 
objects  of  interest,  and  writes  about  them  in  a  way  that  cannot  fail  to 
interest.  We  have  had  so  many  dark  pictures  of  Russia  lately  that  it 
is  a  pleasure  to  get  hold  of  a  book  that  is  to  a  certain  degree  optimistic. 
The  book  is  well  illustrated." —  The  School  Journal. 

"  The  eyes  through  which  we  look  in  this  pleasant  volume  of  travels 
are  not  unused  to  sight  seeing,  and  the  descriptions  here  given  are 
entertaining  and  happy."  —  Herald  and  Presbyter,  Cincinnati. 

"The  volume  richly  deserves  a  place  among  those  welcome  helps 
that  are  bringing  the  most  distant  and  unfrequented  parts  of  the  earth 
near  to  our  own  doors."  —  Golden  Rule,  Boston. 


BEYOND  THE    ROCKIES 

A  SPRING  JOURNEY  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

ILLUSTRATED.    12mo.    $1.5O. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

> 

"  It  is  a  very  seductive  book,  pleasantly  written,  and  draws  the 
reader  on  with  the  unfailing  and  romantic  charm  of  the  country."  — 

The  Independent. 

"  Dr.  Stoddard  has  written  several  books  of  travel,  but  none  more 
entertaining  than  this.  He  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  seeing 
what  there  is  to  be  seen.  The  descriptions  of  life  'Beyond  the 
Rockies  '  are  vivid  and  fresh  beyond  what  we  would  consider  possible 
of  a  land  visited  by  so  many  travellers.  A  superb  series  of  photo- 
graphs illustrate  this  delightful  narrative."—  Philadelphia  Ledger. 

"  From  his  long  experiences  as  a  traveller  he  has  a  faculty  of  seizing 
upon  what  people  are  likely  to  want  to  know,  and  his  account  of  the 
wonderful  land  beyond  the  Rockies  is  an  uncommonly  entertaining 
book  of  travel."  —  Springfield  Republican. 

"Dr.  Stoddard  writes  easily,  pleasantly,  and  often  shrewdly  of  our 
wonderful  Western  Coast.  There  is  a  good  seasoning  of  fun  and  inci- 
dent, and  the  book  is  thoroughly  readable.  It  is  handsomely  illus- 
trated."— The  Outlook. 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  say  much  that  is  new  of  hasty  travel  in  California. 
But  Charles  Augustus  Stoddard,  in  '  Beyond  the  Rockies,'  has  given  to 
familiar  facts  and  places  a  new  aspect.  This  was  to  be  looked  for 
from  an  expert  in  travel."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

"  This  prettily  illustrated  volume  is  a  well-worded  series  of  sketches 
of  a  journey  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  with  the  incidents 
of  travel,  and  excellent  descriptions  of  the  notable  scenes  along  the 
way,  and  the  charms  of  '  the  glorious  climate '  of  Southern  California. 
Those  who.  have  been  there,  and  seen  and  enjoyed,  will  reread  the  story 
and  enjoy  it  almost  as  if  it  were  new."  —  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 

"  It  will  be  welcomed  as  a  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the 
great  West,  most  of  which  is  in  the  necessity  of  the  case  obsolete 
almost  as  soon  as  published.  From  his  long  experiences  as  a  traveller 
he  has  a  faculty  of  seizing  upon  what  people  are  likely  to  want  to 
know,  and  his  account  of  the  wonderful  land  beyond  the  Rockies  is  an 
uncommonly  entertaining  book  of  travel,  while  its  language  is  as  en- 
thusiastic as  the  most  ardent  Californian  could  desire."  —  Springfield 
Republican. 

"His  style  has  the  merit  of  freshness;  occasionally,  indeed,  it  is 
illuminated  by  that  special  humor  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  associat- 
ing witli  'New  England  seriousness.'  But  the  whole  volume  is  care- 
fully written,  and  is  a  conscientious  performance  in  everyway."  — 
Spectator,  London. 

3 


SPANISH    CITIES 

WITH  GLIMPSES  OF  GIBRALTAR  AND  TANGIER. 

ILLUSTRATED.     12  mo.     $1.5O. 


PRESS  NOTICES. 

"He  fulfils  the  ideal  of  a  delightful  travelling  companion,  whose 
conversation  has  informing  qualities  without  being  tedious,  and  whose 
style  has  sparkle  and  flavor  without  froth."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

"  His  style  is  direct,  easy,  and  graceful,  and  his  strong  English  sen- 
tences have  need  of  few  adjectives  to  enforce  their  meaning.  His 
descriptions  of  places  are  concise  and  yet  clear,  and  so  markedly 
elegant  as  to  deserve  more  than  usual  commendation."  —  Chicago 
Inter-Ocean. 

"Dr.  Stoddard's  style  is  easy  and  flowing,  and  he  gives  us,  not 
merely  a  chronicle  of  where  he  went  and  what  he  saw,  but  he  gives  us 
a  series  of  delightful  pen  pictures  of  Spain  and  its  people,  their  habits 
and  customs  and  modes  of  life.  There  are  several  excellent  illustra- 
tions which  add  much  to  the  interest  of  the  work."  —  Boston  Daily 
Advertiser. 

"An  unusually  fresh  and  beautiful  book  of  travel."  —  Brooklyn 
Daily  Eagle. 

"  A  straightforward,  unpretentious,  interesting  account  of  travel  in 
Spain,  with  interesting  descriptions  of  cities,  and  passing  notes  of 
Spanish  life  without  tiresome  statistics  or  historical  rehashing." —  The 
Independent. 

"  A  writer  who  has  the  power  of  seeing  things  as  well  as  describing 
what  he  sees.  To  read  it  is  to  take  one  of  the  most  delightful  trips 
conceivable  with  a  charming  companion  and  raconteur.  .  .  .  The 
illustrations  are  from  photographs,  and  add  very  much  to  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  volume."  —  The  Detroit  Free  Press. 

"  He  knows  well  how  to  find  the  points  and  the  persons  of  special 
interest,  and  then  understands  how  to  make  what  interests  himself 
seem  vivid  and  of  similar  interest  to  the  reader.  His  style,  while  pure 
and  simple,  is  picturesque  and  easily  appeals  to  the  reader's  imagina- 
tion."—  The  Advance. 

"Dr.  Stoddard  is  a  traveller  who  knows  what  he  wants  to  see,  and 
sees  it,  and  a  writer  who  knows  how  to  make  his  readers  see  what  he 
has  seen.  In  this  pleasant  tour  in  Spain  he  saw  the  present  and 
recalled  the  past,  and  his  sketches  of  what  he  saw  gain  an  added 
touch  of  romance  from  the  glimpses  he  gives  of  what  he  remembered 
of  their  former  history."  —  The  Evangelist. 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

743  and  745  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


WEC'D 


JAN  221985 


3  1158  009^ 


A    000096194    6 


